The subject of what I would teach would be a little tough to finalize. Ideally, it would be something that stimulated me as a student and that has big implications. That said, my target age range would be anyone from high school student and above. Perhaps it could be something like teaching the basics of recursion, using Towers of Hanoi as a visual. Or it could be something a little more advanced, like Cantor’s diagonal argument.

Persona

Name: Jerry

Occupation: Student

Mantra: “I am curious about the world. I am interested in Computer Science and Math and always like thinking about the application of these subjects.”

Life Details: Jerry loves to code in his free time. He is thinking about going to graduate school someday. Jerry’s hero is Steve Jobs and he loves Apple products.

VR Experience: Minimal

Questions

We need to discover how we are going to design this experience. Let’s ask a few questions:

Q: Which platforms would be most accessible to Jerry?

A: Given that he is a student, mobile would probably be the best in terms of price. However, since he is interested in tech, he might be willing to invest in a high immersion technology.

Q: How much interaction would be necessary? Eyes only? Should the hands be involved?

A: For a lesson involving Hanoi, hand interaction could definitely be awesome. For the mathematical proof, gazing only would be acceptable. I would probably choose the latter in most cases. No need for overkill.

Q: How realistic do the visuals need to be?

A: Not very realistic. General shapes and objects would be more than enough. I would plan on developing a very abstract place as the “classroom”.

Q: Does Jerry need to actively participate or simply watch?

A: A mixture of both would be ideal. I would say 70% watch, 30% participate. I would want the student to enjoy the VR experience without too much involvement. Periodical quiz questions that require a little interaction would be nice.

Conclusion

After this process, I would say mobile is our best bet. I would go with a cardboard app, as it is the most accessible medium for an iPhone user.

Fun Facts

“would” count in article: 19

Within

Now this app is very neat! Within harnesses the power of VR to enhance storytelling, and boy they have something going. When you open the app, you are given several VR experiences to download. Out of the number of awesome videos on this app, I am only going to discuss one for sake of brevity. One that really stuck out to me was Mr. Robot

I really really enjoyed the vibe of this video. I have not seen an episode of Mr. Robot yet but this experience really got me excited about it. You are introduced as the main character’s companion as he talks to you with his mind. Intuitively, the user can distinguish the main character’s “thought” voice from his conversational voice because of audio techniques implemented. I could see that the producers took extra care with their sound, which was very attractive to me. After the experience, the melody of the song and the images of the dance scene resounded in my head. The story stuck with me and I wanted to watch it a few more times! I would say this is a sign that VR is an extremely effective platform for storytelling. Don’t take my word for it though, go check it out for yourself!

InMind VR

Upon setting your phone into a Google Cardboard, you are transported into this spaceship looking vehicle. A robot insists that it needs a doctor —you, to help treat a depressive disorder of some kind. Once you agree to help, by nodding your head, you are put through a “minimization sequence”. In other words, you become very small, navigate deep into the brain, and get ready to zap red neurons contributing to this disorder.

There were a few parts of this app that I thought were slick:

1. The concept of the game was cool and futuristic. Although it was far from being practically useful, it got me thinking about the use of virtual reality for visualizing and modeling elements of the brain. The Education/Healthcare industries could definitely benefit from this down the road.
2. The “holding a gaze” shooting mechanism was smooth and fun. However, as the game progressed I found myself having to whip around my neck a little more often. The zappable neurons came faster and more rifely.
3. The ambience overall was very pleasing, from visuals of the brain all the way to the audio. The Robot voice, aloof and calm, also added a dimension of imminence to the game.

Sisters

… Never again.

I damn near broke my phone this game scared me so badly.

A Fun Mini Game!

Today I am going to show you how I created a simple Simon-esque VR app. As a part of Udacity’s VR Developer Nanodegree program I created this in the “Puzzler Project” section. In this game I combined many things I had previously learned about VR into a cohesive experience.

Puzzler

As I mentioned before, this VR game is based off the classic Simon game. However in my app, you only get to play a single game where you must memorize a sequence of five hits.

Sidebar: I know, I know, I know, a 5-sequence game of Simon is too easy. In fact, my high score on a single game of Simon is 47! But for the sake of the experience and for simplicity you could say I left the difficulty on “pretty easy”.

Enough talk! Check out the video below to see how the game unfolds.

Process

To create a fun, effective, and memorable VR experience you must take your workflow seriously. In the making of Puzzler, I stepped through a detailed process so that I could identify my goals, solve the “big” problems initially, and create less work for myself as I finished the project.

Persona

As you can see above, I started off by creating a persona, or a fictional character, to design this VR game for. By doing this I engrain a personality into my conscience to refer to at multiple parts of the creative process.

Sketches

Physical sketches, using pen and paper, are useful because they are convenient and they are not expensive: You can draw up 20 possible sketches of a game and choose the best one in the same time that you design and redesign an actual UI a few times! Before you are inclined to ask, Van Gogh, Picasso, and ah.. Rembrandt are my main artistic influences.

Yes I agree, the sketches above are pretty terrible. But I will say sketching exercises your mind in a very non-trivial manner. You’d be surprised!

User Testing

Sidebar: It is worth noting that my user was very new to VR and thus perhaps a little too complimentary and exhilarated. However, even if he couldn’t give me the best criticism, the iterative user testing process helped me identify more kinks to straighten out (even more so than I thought it would have).

Test #1: In the first user test, I got a feel for how my particular user felt in the space. At this point, my project was very bare and no game was implemented yet. The following comments represent a few crucial moments of the first user test:

Q: “Okay now that you have the Cardboard on, how do you feel?”

A: “Good! This is cool, this door looks a little high”

Q: “How would you describe what you are seeing?”

A: “A little spooky I guess.”

Also, my user remarked about something on the wall of the building. When I took his headset I noticed that I had not aligned a wall properly with a post. Following this test I made two major changes: 1) I made the user taller in the scene by raising the camera. 2) I had to tinker with the building properties to properly set everything in place, eliminating awkward flickering.

Test #2: At this point I had the Simon game up and running and it was ready for play! … At least I thought so.

Q: “Alright so you can see I have added some elements since the last time. Have you ever played the game Simon?”

A: “You mean like Simon Says? I think so.”

Q: “Nice, so when you press ‘start’ some spheres will appear and you are just going to play Simon.”

A: “Oh okay.”

Clock: Tick..Tock..Tick..Tock

After a minute or so of watching my user jolt his head around frantically, I deduced that my user did not understand how to play my game. I interjected:

Q: “You getting it?”

A: “No, I don’t think so. Hahaha”

Q: “You remember how to play Simon, right?”

A: “Yeah but there are all these pink squares flying around, it is too fast for me to see.”

I found two crucial errors that contributed to his confusion. First, as seen in the commentary above, the particle systems emitted these pink squares from the game spheres which were obviously superfluous. Second, my user couldn’t tell whether he was actually selecting the spheres or not. After wrapping up the second user test, I went straight back into Unity knowing exactly what needed to be done: 1) Get rid of the particle system altogether. 2) Add a few more components so that my user could light up a given sphere by gazing at it and also hear a noise when he selects it.

Final Walkthrough: Yes! Now my user was able to successfully navigate the environment and complete the game intuitively!

Key Considerations

Navigation: Motion sickness is a serious consideration when it comes to VR. There are entire articles and pieces of documentation that are solely dedicated to it. Furthermore, it was important to establish a navigation system that was both intuitive and comfortable for the user.

Environment: I saw the mood of my game evolve a bit through the process. When I decided to make the environment more realistic, I sacrificed some of the “spooky” aura I originally created. This was a very worthwhile compromise nonetheless.

User Perspective: User testing is an invaluable component of VR development, as you may have gathered. Because I am 6’7”, I originally designed the game to fit my unique perspective. I am sure you can see how this would be problematic!

Breakdown of the Final Piece

In Puzzler, the user appears in a dark mountainous area. He is presented with a path and a menu, which gives him the opportunity to play the game. The user then wanders into an abandoned structure to play a 5-sequence game of Simon. If the pattern is repeated unsuccessfully a dissonant noise will play and the user will get another opportunity. After successfully completing the challenge, the user travels outside the structure and gets the option to restart the game.

Conclusion

I was surprised at how effectively I could make a Mobile VR experience fun, accessible, and thrilling. Throughout the whole journey, I learned a lot about VR design through implementation. Developing a VR game sounds like something that may be very complex, and while it definitely can be, you would be surprised at how many non-technical aspects can make or break your VR experience. It is awesome that with only a few VR specific considerations in mind, anyone can begin making their own virtual realms very quickly!

Taking it Further

To extend this app I would add animals and animate them walking around the main structure: A bit of “life” in the scene would increase the immersive value of the game. Secondly I might find a way to increase the complexity of the game. Perhaps I could implement the original features of the Simon game. For instance, the users would complete increasingly difficult sequences until they fail, then the “restart” screen would show their score and prompt the user to try again. Yep, that sounds a bit more like the Simon you can pick up at your local Barnes & Noble, only converted into a fun VR world!