SEA OF STORIES
ROLE : TECHNICAL DESIGNER | SEPTEMBER 2016 - DECEMBER 2016 | TEAM SIZE = 4
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OVERVIEWThe Sea of Stories is an attempt to create a computer generated pice of art for VR, which means all the assets are created within Unreal Engine. In doing so we hoped to discover rules of composition for VR as a medium for art. The experience itself is an exploration of a fantasy world with an ocean and it's currents each a visual representaton of a story.
As technical designer my role was to assemble all the different pieces to create the experience and handle all the real time rendered components of the experience. |
ITERATION 1
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As it was originally conceived, the experience had a strong narrative that explained the mystery of the world as the viewer progressed through. However as we playtested we unearthed design challenges we had not originally conceived. The aspect of movement in a VR experience hugely compounds issues such as pacing and holding the viewer's attention as the viewer's perspective of the world is constantly changing. This complicates communication of a narrative. |
PLAYTEST RESULTS
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Our first playtest told us that the experience was in general too overwhelming. With movement through the world, abstract dialog and different visual cues trying to communicate a narrative, too much was being thrown at the viewer. |
FINAL IMPLEMENTATION
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The solution was to strip away elements that were distracting the viewer from absorbing the world. We eliminated all dialog pivoting the experience from being a narrative to instead being an exploration of a world. We enhanced the visual cues of the experience. For example, instead of flying over the currents, the viewer was now immersed inside them. This helped clarify what the currents represented in the world, as well as added visual diversity to the experience creating deeper immersion and engagement.
