Game Idea
The idea was to create an immersive shooter game, set in a forest where the player is tasked with protecting a pen of chickens from hungry zombies. The use of bow and arrow in VR augments the game play by introducing a realistic physical dynamic which normally lacks in 3D games. The challenge of providing a non-intrusive UI into a VR environment is solved through extensive audio narration. .
Game Development
Initially, I was not sure how the movement / physical constraints of the game might work, so I started off by modelling a custom terrain and playing with its features, seeing the impact on the VR experience. I quickly realised that:
- flat paths make a much smoother game experience when travelling longer distances
- occasional inclines were OK, however they would slow the player down and might make movement frustrating
- transportation areas were both a good way of making the game accessible and allowing the player to move fast between different corners of the game world.
Once the terrain was more or less finalised, I played around with the Navmesh set-up, which determined the different movement paths for the zombies. Careful placement of trees and other obstructions was essential in spreading the different paths, that the spawned zombie game-objects would take to reach the chicken pen.
The next step was developing the bow and arrow player interface - I based it on a VR with Andrew tutorial and adapted the C# code accordingly to suit the game. Once working, this made a huge improvement to the feel of the game in VR.
Following this, the Game Manager was further developed to establish different game levels, spawning rules and co-routines. This was an iterative process and involved continuous testing and tweaking to make sure the game was neither too easy or too challenging right from the start.
Development of audio and haptic feedback followed, which was a layered exercise as it involved:
- audio and haptic feedback for the player (vibration, walking sounds etc.)
- audio sounds for different game characters (e.g. zombies, chickens)
- audio narration for the player - randomised lists of audio clips to avoid repetition
- ambience sounds (e.g. forest, intro music)
Finally, the UI interface was developed, to include the Main Menu, the screen appearing when game was paused, Game Over screen and the Scoreboard.
Development point log
The below items have been determined as future development points, following feedback from different users testing out the game:
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