Our week In Recall
This week saw the very beginnings of our third and forth prototypes. We worked on getting the basic mechanics added to our prototypes, meeting with professors, and deciding on the more general aspects of our designs and art styles. In addition we continued our efforts to complete our tests and organize the data that we have gathered in the past. Particularly we are focusing on presenting our data in a easily read and understood way that will be of us to others outside the project.
What we Accomplished
As a recap, our next two prototypes are code named ‘Werewolves and Vampires’ and ‘Headless Horseman’. ‘Werewolves and Vampires’ is a new form of tower defense. The player will use a continuous laser firing from the in game camera to eliminate enemies and activate ground turrent which will help destory enemies. Their point of view will be fixed on top of a plateau and they will have to spin around (360 degrees) in their chair in order to keep track of the entire battlefield.
The first step in this prototype was to get the Oculus Camera set up in the position shown in the previous picture. We needed to see what it was like the be fixed in a single position and have to turn your entire body to see the whole game area. The result was a ‘poor man’s holodeck’. It was immersive and unique without needing to mimic reality.
The second prototype, ‘Headless Horseman’ was centered around the concept of holding your head in one hand. The player would use the PS Move to actually hold the in game camera, which would be connected to the Oculus Rift screen. Our second mechanic was the ability to throw the player’s head around the map in order to see over walls and around barriers.
The first step to this prototype was to get the PS Move and Oculus to talk to each other. This required the use of Move.Me, a Playstation add-on. Once this was done, Frank created a mock up of our mechanic and after playing for a while we concluded that it was a strange but not uncomfortable experience.
Our final accomplishment this week was completing our Walking Test with the Oculus. We compared walking blindfolded with walking with an Oculus Rift loaded with a virtual world. In short we learned that while walking with an OR can be very distracting the device can provide a fixed point of reference which allows the user to walk in a straight line.
What’s Next
We are pushing forward on the art assets and the implementation of the secondary mechanics in each of the prototypes.