Microassignment 7: Playtest + VRL Response
I got very motion sick and noticed a few things I messed up.
This was my first time spending any sustained amount of time in a VR headset and it took some adjustments.
It felt like it wasn’t secure on my head for a while and I was struggling with whether or not I needed glasses for VR because when it wasn’t secure I had a harder time seeing and got some double vision that translated to motion sickness.
(I need glasses for distance and some close up work and two different pairs so that took a bit of experimention.)
When I took a step away and came back I had better results. For this week I downloaded three apps:
- Half & Half (a social VR gamespace)
- Fujii (a biodome game)
- Luna (a narrative puzzle game)
Half & Half ended up being one of the ones that made me the most disoriented, plus pretty sure one of the weird among us-like figures tried to possess me like you see ghosts do in movies.
Fiji didn’t want to load so I put that aside for now and spent my time in Luna.
VR Playtest: Luna
I bought Luna as part of a package set from the Oculus store called Bizarre Worlds. Luna is about a bird who gets lost and you have to help them find their way home by doing tasks that restore nature.
I ended up playing through this in about 20 minutes and involved the little red bird meeting a turtle so a new moon could be born.
Above is a screenshot of the world I was in where I had to plant things to bring back a frog, and some bees, and then eventually a turtle would appear. It was a very interesting experience because the world felt like a living diorama, I could spin it, angle it, and I could interact with shells with rocks and wood. It felt a lot like a puzzle.
It’s not evident in the screencap, but my controllers were transformed into venus flytrap-like things that were interesting to play with since the only thing I could do with them is grab.
Some of the interaction designs also felt strange. To get the bird to sing and summon the turtle I had to move my hand in a clockwise motion but it didn’t draw much attention to itself and usually, when I saw the same shapes, I would have to place something there.
I think since I was with animals the style fit this game. It was somewhat cartoonish and I could get lost in them like a Disney princess, but it was serene enough and the ambiance was inviting and I look forward to returning.
Additional Observations
- The first time I set up a game I accidently set it up too close to my desk and couldn’t interact with something I needed to interact with.
- My dog does not like the headset especially while I’m attempting to play Beat Saber. It freaked her out!
VRL Response
I found the lecture on automating testing very interesting this week, especially the observations about the pipelines for testing. I’ve been on a one-person design team before and it’s exhausting trying to explain to people the different things you have to test for, and since my mind moves towards a more scientific and methodical mode of testing.
I also enjoyed the showcase of Victoria VR. I am really intrigued by this idea of open space with de-centralized agencies, however, I am stuck on this idea as to how it’s a democratized space when it’s run and maintained by people. I think maybe I just need to learn more about how blockchain works.
I also kind of liked the idea of the human avatars. Something that had always bothered me about VR is that there’s something very artificial about how everything looks that really makes me suspend my disbelief.
Note: I took a video recording of my time in Luna but it is taking forever to upload. I’ll add it to this post when I finally get it to upload.
