MEND

VR Design / Game Design

Skills Acquired: Unity, Blender, VR Design, XR Interaction Toolkit, Interaction Design, Oculus Quest 2, 3D Modeling, Animation

VR DESIGN

Unity, Blender, Oculus Quest 2

Mend is an asymmetric co-op puzzle game currently in development. It is 2 player game played using a VR headset and a traditional video game controller, and the players must work together to solve puzzles.

Mend came to our XR Terra VR Design class, asking us to tackle a few design issues they currently have.

COMMUNICATION: How can a player using a VR headset communicate with a traditional platform player in a more meaningful and clear way?
PAUSE MENU: Sometimes, we all need a break. How should MEND the game address users being able to pause the game?

Please watch the video to the left to view the final product or scroll down to see my design process.

To learn more about the game itself, visit their Twitter here!

DESIGN PROCESS

Want to see the full documentation? View our team presentation we shared with Mend here!

THE TEAM

OBJECTIVE

The viewpoint of the VR player and controller player being completely different can make it quite complicated to communicate each other's locations. Our goal was to create a new feature to the game that allows the players to communicate to each other where they are within the large map.
The game being a 2 player game, it can be quite awkward when 1 player has to pause and the other player to sit and wait (especially for the VR player). A goal of our team was to create a pause feature that allows the players to have a separate environment to explore while on pause.

PROBLEM 1:
COMMUNICATION TOOL

INSPIRATIONS

We were inspired by classic video games like Super Mario and Zelda as well as everyday way-finding tools like markers used on hiking trails and compasses.

FEATURES

We came up with 2 main features that could help with player communication.

1. Environment saturation changes depending on the distance between the players. When you get too far from each other, the environment color changes!

2. An inventory system (treasure chest) that gives players a communication tool they can use to communicate each other's location.

TREASURE CHEST ITEMS

There are 3 different items the treasure chest can generate. Each one has a different probability of showing up:
Compass (60%), Flag (30%), Teleport (10%)

Both the VR Player and Platform player can collect and use these items. The items function differently depending on the player.