Introduction
Pandora has opened the box of evil and unleashed it upon the world. She goes on a quest to fix her mistake and bring the world back to life. The theme of this project was to tell a story, which made narrative the central design driver.
Designing comfortable movement
The Oculus Rift allowed a smaller walking area than the HTC Vive, yet we wanted a larger world to explore. So the player rides a carriage pulled by a pegasus — because we wanted to fly. That introduced challenges around motion sickness and comprehension while moving:
- A pegasus and power source in front of the user act as a fixed pivot point, reducing motion sickness.
- Carriage speed eases in and out to feel natural, stopping automatically where player interaction is needed.
- Two levels — ground and sky — leverage the fable’s magical nature and experiment with reactions to ascent.
- A visual reward system (color shifts, happier music, a colorful top-down reveal) teaches players they are doing the right thing.
My contribution
As a programmer, I helped realize the carriage locomotion, the layered environments and the reward-based feedback that carried the story.