This week Stephen, Bernard & Biyi spoke about interactions in Video Games.
The Presentation
The first person to speak was Biyi. She started out by speaking about the survey sent earlier to all the colleagues asking them about their experiences with video games and gaming technologies. She then spoke about the principles of gamification and how they apply in modern day gaming technologies. She showed cases of games being used in education and lifestyle within our society and how interactions within gameplay can create a narrative.
Bernard spoke about VR and the concept of immersiveness in games. He gave the example of the VR headset he owns which is Oculus and elaborated on what games exist on the platform. He said that the quality of games is really imprimatur in VR because the graphics have to be very real to make the user feel immersed in the virtual world and enjoy the experience. I joined Bernard in one of his gaming sessions with the VR where we played different games and he talked about our reactions to different scenarios posed in those games.
Lastly Stephen elaborated further on VR and how the technology has evolved what different variations of the VR exist today. He spoke about the user experience and the designers role in the VR space. He also showed us a study by ‘Void’ which is a company that creates environments for immersive gameplay. He also talked to us various themes in games like horror, thriller, mystery etc.
The Workshop
We split for a break and returned for the workshop. We all played a fun game called shell shockers which is like Call of Duty but everyone is an egg and the aim is to scramble each other. Post that we continued with the design activity. This week I was teamed up with Neasa, Josephine and Chenxi. Our brief included a persona a technology around which we had to design and intervention. Our persona was that of a 45 year old woman who’s name was Jo, she lives alone with her cat in Limerick and her family lives in other cities. She is fond of dancing and often feels lonely at home.
A short video of our discussion & brainstorming session-
The product we designed was an online app that would be built in with the Kinect to take advantage of gesture controls. The app was sort of a day planner where the user could get a full day’s experience and plan their mornings, days and nights. It also had a communal element where the user can invite more people to join and have a sense of togetherness. During the morning time she can take a walk across any virtual location she feels like, this would enable her to virtually get out of the house and get a sense of change. She can also connect with her friends going on the same route to walk. During the day we decided to have an element of a car concert or a community pet session where per owners come together. After that there was an event for entertainment where people could play music and others joined to keep a sense of community connected by art and music. After a short break everyone comes together for a Netflix party where they watch a movie and eat followed by a dance party where you can meet new people or play games like cards against humanity and heads up. The aim to connect more people and give a sense of togetherness and community to battle the loneliness. A virtual community that joins you throughout the day.
It was great learning about games and VR. Gamification and UX are very much similar which makes the craft of creating games and dealing with them even more relatable. The scenario we got this week was perfect, because of the current lockdown situation we empathised with Jo and her loneliness, it was a great session of gameplay and design with the fellow classmates. Now that I think, that app could be hugely popular in the current times. With everyone in isolation, it's important to have a sense of community.
*****