Thesis Documentation

Abstract

I’m making a collaborative game, concentrating on collective immersion. The primary player will wear a VR headset, the game will also immerse other secondary players without the VR headset. By designing a game using virtual reality and asymmetric roles, it will immerse the players into the action. Normally, VR games are exclusive played by a single player, but I am creating a cohesive game experience for all players with different devices. Because my group immersive experience requires different ways to experience the game, I choose to use a "strong asymmetry gameplay" where some of the players playing will have drastically different experiences as they play together.

My immersive game allows the secondary players to change the terrain and the environment. The process will dramatically change the primary player’s game view. My target audience is people interested in new VR experience and group game play, and this game has potential to be a party game or a team building game. My user tests show that young people such as middle school and college students enjoy this game more.

Challenge

An infection of VR

I’m designing a multiplayer asymmetric VR game, to blend non-VR mechanism and VR mechanism into one game, in order to provide equally immersive gaming experiences for players with and without VR headsets at the same time. Technologically, the game works fine. However, I need to run the game on the internet or a local database, thus it will be a multiplayer game. Now I can use unity’s server “UNet” or other VR servers online, I need a week to learn them. To make them more engaging, I also need to learn how to make animation in MAYA. Because of my game methodology encourages players to kill, I want to add some villains. In order to make it meaningful, I need to working on the methodology. Or I can design a story for it. If I need a new background story, a new GUI system is needed. To release the game on Apple store later, I’ll have to redesign the indicator and the game view. I need more user tests, to see if these changes are working.

Summarizing Ava’s thesis

Because of the blizzard, I can not meet Ava in person before this Friday. However, I

after I read her presentation slides, I found her idea is unforgettable. Ava cares about

the society, she is going to create a work of social practice art to remind people about

the vinyl chloride issue. According to her research, human frequently being exposed

to low concentrations of vinyl chloride will cause serious consequences. She want to

collaborate with 625 people who may be victims of this chemical. So far she is going

to find out a way to make every participant’s work easier. They may contribute to the

project by offering their time and energy to make needlepointed tapestries

representing the proportion of one part per million, with one stitch equating to one

part.

She found that the old industry long term exposure limit standard was 500ppm. After

a group of workers died of angiosarcoma that cause be Vinyl chloride, the industry

reduced it to 1ppm. Her research also have shown to us that even 1ppm can be

dangerous. It will increase the risk of liver cancer. That remind me an old Chinese

saying “quench a thirst with poison.” Here is worse, the companies make profits by

taking risks with the workers’ and residents’ health.

The 625 participants, the people who will check Ava’s websites, and people who is

going see the show, everyone who cares about the vinyl chloride issue and their health

will be her target audience. She didn’t describe them clearly in here slides, however

she did mentioned that her project will be related to social practice art and grassroots

environmental activism.

Ava’s project may look like a matrix of large number of small squares of needlepoint.

There also will be one stitch rendered in a different color hidden in the center of every

squares that will represent the toxin.

I feel her project is not only about raising the vinyl chloride issue. She told me that

she also cares about the invisible cost of the large-scale systems, and the relationship

between the benefits and cost of the system. If she got more time, I think this worth

another try. It will make her concept deeper and more awakened.

Ava's description of my thesis project

Geyao’s thesis project is a collaborative two-player puzzle game with a strong asymmetrical gameplay experience. The primary player experiences the game through a VR headset, while the secondary player interfaces with the game on an adjacent laptop. The two players view the game environment from different perspectives and are given different abilities; they must cooperate with each other verbally to solve spatial puzzles and advance through multiple levels of gameplay. As defined by games journalist Jeremy Parish, asymmetric gameplay can either be “soft”—in which two players have different roles and objectives even though they operate under the same methodology (controllers, movements, rule sets, etc.)—or “strong,” in which players’ entire play experience is distinct. Geyao’s thesis game works under the model of strong asymmetry, as it is designed to bridge the gap between VR (usually a singular individual experience) and other modes of play, in order to open up new collaborative possibilities for both VR and computer-based gamers.

The core play experience involves both players working together to rearrange or destroy colored blocks in order to aid the progress of the game’s main character as he battles antagonists and moves through a colorful world that presents obstacles at every turn. While the primary player is in control of the moveable elements in the game, the secondary character has the ability to alter the terrain and the environment, which can drastically change the physics of the game and either assist or hinder the outcome of the puzzle. Players can only win or lose as a team: if all obstacles are cleared and the main character remains alive and intact—without, say, being inadvertently blown up or falling from a great height—both characters win. If the main character does not survive, both characters automatically lose.

Each level of the game contains a spatial puzzle, composed of blue white, and pink cubes. Blue cubes are moveable components that can be reconfigured or removed from the structure; white cubes are weight-carrying components; and pink components cause the entire structure to explode if touched. Because the game runs on a physics engine with strong propulsive forces, the primary player feels the spatial rearrangement of the puzzle in a heightened physical way. In the story-world of the game, each puzzle is a spatial obstacle that prevents the game’s main character from progressing through the world. This game is for all ages middle school and up, including audiences with little to no prior experience with VR headsets. The game mechanics are meant to be easy to learn, and the fun comes from the real-time experience of collaboration between players.