‘How Does That Make You Feel’ was the final WIP title I settle on for my VR game idea for this years final project.
The Plot:
As I said, I wanted to have a good storyline for my content, and having spent time writing as a hobby, I got to work drafting a story. The player would play as a medical based AI directed with restoring or removing suppressed memories inside people’s minds. The core premise was the AI would live out and experience these memories, and would have a final choice to restore or shred them at the end of the level – with different impacts from either decision.
Memories would be linked in unforeseen ways, and the initial impact of your choices would be left ambiguous until you had finished treating the patient. The story would find its roots heavily in the themes of escapism, something I hoped to capitalize on by linking to my essay in my second module this year which I themed around escapism.
The Gameplay:
In each level, certain ‘mood states’ would be accessible such as sad or happy. The player’s core goal would be to combine these mood states in a certain way to create the specific mood the patient locked them memory behind.
Mood states would affect the environment, such as anger setting certain areas ablaze. The mood states would also be used as a form of puzzle solving, with certain objects, places, and other moods locked behind areas that need other certain moods. Once the player gets the required mood, they would receive a memory ball which they could view, and then decide whether to restore or shred.
Initially, I thought it best to make fully 3d environments the player could use locomotion to explore. However, later down the line my classmate Billy came up with the idea of the player being stationary and interacting with items from a distance. The idea stuck out as a lot more interesting premise on how the game would play, and also would make presenting the piece to others a lot easier as it would limit possible motion sickness in newer VR players.
The Design:
In terms of my implementation of AI art, I wanted to try and make the memories a collage of DALL-E generated scenes, slowly building together to make a memory. It would thematically suit the themes as well given the player character is an AI.
Beyond DALL-E, the level design would be modeled on how people would perceive the inside of a brain to be. There are a few examples of this I stated in my presentation, but the creative freedom on how to make that look would have been very high.
One major core design element I wanted is that the player had to FEEL the mood states. I needed to find a way to express them in the design elements in all areas at once, whether that be using the emotional color wheel for the level palette, changing sound design, or any other myriad of elements.
With all this, I put it together into a presentation alongside a few other elements I thought well to mention. Abel did point out that my presentation didn’t change much between the first time I showed it, and the time I presented it, but I don’t think it needed too much. I had a core idea in my head of what I wanted and saw no reason to try and alter it simply to change my presentation. I just tried to add bits into areas here and there whilst also making sure I wasn’t info dumping tons on anyone whom I presented to.
This is what the finished presentation looked like.