VR-y Cool!
I’m not going to lie, VR is pretty awesome. Even if you do not have access to high tech gear like an Oculus Rift or an HTC Vive, you can still create exciting VR experiences for more accessible mediums like Google Cardboard, Google Daydream, or GearVR. Believe it or not, it is pretty simple to get up and running with a VR app. In particular, Google’s VR SDK makes it very easy to implement a VR Camera for a Cardboard.
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.
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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!
