Re:live Concept
Conceptual Statement
Re:live is a virtual reality experience that embodies the four primary emotions humans experience: Fear, Anger, Sadness and Happiness. Emotions were chosen as a basis for the project as these represent the core connections people have in interaction, both generally and towards media, this is no exception with content developed for virtual reality. The project is experimental in nature from both an artistic perspective as well as being investigative and observational. This comes in the form of evoking emotions expressively through research informed design and then seeing whether this affects the emotional state of users.
Two core levels representing Happiness and Fear were chosen to represent the underlying idea of the project. These both contrast but blend in shape, form, colour, sound and mechanics with consistency in a low poly art form but a completely different form of engagement from the user through mechanics and level design. The stark contrast in design includes the use of an analogous colours which creates harmonisation within the Happiness Level whereas colour palette was dictated through function in the Fear level. This was to achieve a strong mental shift as well as working coherently with progression throughout the time of play. Both levels consist of a small story experience where the user advances through each map with a clear indication of where to advance, the idea behind this was to create a level that evolves so the user has an opportunity to process a range of sub emotions within the primary emotion of either Happiness or Fear.
From early development until the final output Re:live has been a step by step process in which the team created custom content from scratch with an informed research and a purpose as a building block towards a greater outcome. A significant portion of the project was enumeration and re iteration to slowly work towards reaching the goals set by the team, areas such as design were especially scrutinized through the application onto Oculus Rift which presents its own criteria and requirements as a media output. This has been a highly reflective project with analysis on both the development process as a team but also the ideas being portrayed behind design decisions.
Re:live is a virtual reality experience that embodies the four primary emotions humans experience: Fear, Anger, Sadness and Happiness. Emotions were chosen as a basis for the project as these represent the core connections people have in interaction, both generally and towards media, this is no exception with content developed for virtual reality. The project is experimental in nature from both an artistic perspective as well as being investigative and observational. This comes in the form of evoking emotions expressively through research informed design and then seeing whether this affects the emotional state of users.
Two core levels representing Happiness and Fear were chosen to represent the underlying idea of the project. These both contrast but blend in shape, form, colour, sound and mechanics with consistency in a low poly art form but a completely different form of engagement from the user through mechanics and level design. The stark contrast in design includes the use of an analogous colours which creates harmonisation within the Happiness Level whereas colour palette was dictated through function in the Fear level. This was to achieve a strong mental shift as well as working coherently with progression throughout the time of play. Both levels consist of a small story experience where the user advances through each map with a clear indication of where to advance, the idea behind this was to create a level that evolves so the user has an opportunity to process a range of sub emotions within the primary emotion of either Happiness or Fear.
From early development until the final output Re:live has been a step by step process in which the team created custom content from scratch with an informed research and a purpose as a building block towards a greater outcome. A significant portion of the project was enumeration and re iteration to slowly work towards reaching the goals set by the team, areas such as design were especially scrutinized through the application onto Oculus Rift which presents its own criteria and requirements as a media output. This has been a highly reflective project with analysis on both the development process as a team but also the ideas being portrayed behind design decisions.
Re:live Context
Development throughout the project was extremely experimental partly due to the resources but also due to the open ended aspect of the project. Areas such as mechanics went through an entire process of development, this started with selection based off research and inspiration in conjunction with one another, then these were narrowed down and picked, developed by the two engine specialists and finally play tested prior to a decision being made on whether these would become part of the final build. Design was heavily informed by research on association between specific form and colour. Plutchik’s Colour Wheel assisted with the creation of colour pallets specialised for each emotion(Plutchik, R. 1980), The form of the 3d models and environments was equally as important with shapes, being associated with different emotions(Bradley, S. 2013).
There were two major influences and inspirations when it came to the development of the environments within the project, firstly there were informed decisions made from research on psychological techniques rooted in design. The second inspiration was through pre existing games as these are strongly associated to the project these had more influence over mechanics. Both were deeply intertwined as part of the project. With a twist of variation from strictly a research based decision or strictly a decision made from inspiration, this pushed the idea of experimentation behind the project.
Interestingly enough during the testing phase, half of the experience needed to be remade due to pushing the hardware beyond its limits. Looking for a more practical design inspiration was drawn from the very first conceptual ideas of Ancient Rome and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, essentially these created a fusion of old conceptual ideas but applying them in a contextually valid sense. This formed a new basis for the Happiness level, with a colour pallet developed from research of Plutchik’s Colour Wheel(Plutchik, R. 1980) and harmonization through analogous colours(Bleicher, Steven. 2011) which are common in nature as well as representing a warm temperature. The mechanics behind Happiness were developed around inspiration from two separate games Aion and Journey, the ability to glide and wind streams to push the player were implemented to create a sense of freedom and control.
Contrasting to the Happiness level, Fears output was completely different. Influenced more from psychological manipulation through cognitive experiences(Gray, J. A. 1985) fear was created through a strong implementation of the uncanny valley(Tinwell, Angela. 2014). This resulted in a feeling of uneasiness within the player, a sub emotion of fear(Tomkins, S. S. 1984). These were combined and applied to both the 3d models created by Ryan and the overall level design. The idea behind this was to take multiple approaches so building the atmosphere of the environment was more well rounded.
There were two major influences and inspirations when it came to the development of the environments within the project, firstly there were informed decisions made from research on psychological techniques rooted in design. The second inspiration was through pre existing games as these are strongly associated to the project these had more influence over mechanics. Both were deeply intertwined as part of the project. With a twist of variation from strictly a research based decision or strictly a decision made from inspiration, this pushed the idea of experimentation behind the project.
Interestingly enough during the testing phase, half of the experience needed to be remade due to pushing the hardware beyond its limits. Looking for a more practical design inspiration was drawn from the very first conceptual ideas of Ancient Rome and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, essentially these created a fusion of old conceptual ideas but applying them in a contextually valid sense. This formed a new basis for the Happiness level, with a colour pallet developed from research of Plutchik’s Colour Wheel(Plutchik, R. 1980) and harmonization through analogous colours(Bleicher, Steven. 2011) which are common in nature as well as representing a warm temperature. The mechanics behind Happiness were developed around inspiration from two separate games Aion and Journey, the ability to glide and wind streams to push the player were implemented to create a sense of freedom and control.
Contrasting to the Happiness level, Fears output was completely different. Influenced more from psychological manipulation through cognitive experiences(Gray, J. A. 1985) fear was created through a strong implementation of the uncanny valley(Tinwell, Angela. 2014). This resulted in a feeling of uneasiness within the player, a sub emotion of fear(Tomkins, S. S. 1984). These were combined and applied to both the 3d models created by Ryan and the overall level design. The idea behind this was to take multiple approaches so building the atmosphere of the environment was more well rounded.
My Experience
As the team leader, I was responsible for looking over the project and designating primary tasks. These were initially sorted based off the attributes of each team member, Steven being sound and 2d art, Sujay with mechanics, Ryan with 3d modelling and myself focusing primarily on level design but also working with mechanics.
Overseeing the project was certainly a challenging role and was extremely insightful in terms of finding the dynamics for the team, At times the workflow would plateau due to roadblocks. As leader it was my role to assist in overcoming the bottlenecks being faced and I found that managing a group of four was exponentially more difficult than working than with a partner due to highly increased micro managing requirements and a change in communication.
Beyond the role as the leader of the group I was also the main level designer and assisted with mechanics. I worked closely alongside Ryan to develop the atmosphere of the maps and this required a high level of communication during the development stages for both the level assembly and the models used for it. Well over 95% of the content was created from scratch by each member of the group.
As a level designer my skills are more involved with the actual functionality within Unreal Engine 4 which is a powerful tool for media development in its own right. The speciality of this lies within the features to make the project interactive and large in scale, within adaptability to add mechanics and variance in rendering,
Overseeing the project was certainly a challenging role and was extremely insightful in terms of finding the dynamics for the team, At times the workflow would plateau due to roadblocks. As leader it was my role to assist in overcoming the bottlenecks being faced and I found that managing a group of four was exponentially more difficult than working than with a partner due to highly increased micro managing requirements and a change in communication.
Beyond the role as the leader of the group I was also the main level designer and assisted with mechanics. I worked closely alongside Ryan to develop the atmosphere of the maps and this required a high level of communication during the development stages for both the level assembly and the models used for it. Well over 95% of the content was created from scratch by each member of the group.
As a level designer my skills are more involved with the actual functionality within Unreal Engine 4 which is a powerful tool for media development in its own right. The speciality of this lies within the features to make the project interactive and large in scale, within adaptability to add mechanics and variance in rendering,
Future Goals
A future goal behind Re:live is to broaden the spectrum for development in virtual reality environments and increase their immersiveness by making the user more emotionally involved. This is aimed more towards developers in setting an example of how different stimulus can potentially change the user’s mental state, therefore allowing future experiences to be crafted to be more emotionally immersive. Virtual reality opens a new field of potential research and development. Despite emotions being a powerful attachment to an experience, there is a detachment between the end product and the target audience and an impact we want to have on virtual reality development is assisting with building the confidence by taking those first steps into creating a more emotionally immersive environment through examples and guidelines. The perspective of it is better to show than tell is being taken here.
Early Concepts
Concepts in the development stage
References
References:
Gray, J. A. (1985). The whole and its parts: Behaviour, the brain, cognition and emotion. Bulletin of the British Psychological Society. 38, 99-112.
Plutchik, R. (1980). A general psychoevolutionary theory of emotion. In R. Plutchik & H. Kellerman (Eds.), Emotion: Theory, research, and experience: Vol. 1. Theories of emotion (pp. 3-33). New York: Academic.
Tomkins, S. S. (1984). Affect theory. In K. R. Scherer & P. Ekman (Eds.), Approaches to emotion (pp. 163-195). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum
Bradley, S. (2013). Elements, Attributes, & Principles. In Design Fundamentals, (pp. 41-43). Vanseo Design.
Bleicher, Steven (2011). "Color Harmonies". Contemporary Color: Theory & Use. Clifton Park. NY: Delmar Cengage Learning. p. 70.
Tinwell, Angela (2014-12-04). The Uncanny Valley in Games and Animation. CRC Press. pp. 165–.ISBN 9781466586956. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
Gray, J. A. (1985). The whole and its parts: Behaviour, the brain, cognition and emotion. Bulletin of the British Psychological Society. 38, 99-112.
Plutchik, R. (1980). A general psychoevolutionary theory of emotion. In R. Plutchik & H. Kellerman (Eds.), Emotion: Theory, research, and experience: Vol. 1. Theories of emotion (pp. 3-33). New York: Academic.
Tomkins, S. S. (1984). Affect theory. In K. R. Scherer & P. Ekman (Eds.), Approaches to emotion (pp. 163-195). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum
Bradley, S. (2013). Elements, Attributes, & Principles. In Design Fundamentals, (pp. 41-43). Vanseo Design.
Bleicher, Steven (2011). "Color Harmonies". Contemporary Color: Theory & Use. Clifton Park. NY: Delmar Cengage Learning. p. 70.
Tinwell, Angela (2014-12-04). The Uncanny Valley in Games and Animation. CRC Press. pp. 165–.ISBN 9781466586956. Retrieved 13 January 2015.