VR Winter Wonderland
Designed to replace a physical event during a COVID-19 lockdown, VR Winter Wonderland, explores the interactions between a virtual reality level design and a wider metaverse. Open spaces are designed to be explored before interacting with a specific shopfront or activity, as one would when exploring a real world Christmas market. The level design was intended to remind the player of the real world event, while expanding beyond the limitations faced by real world event planners. Theoretical VR implementations of Christmas market activities were explored before implementing an example activity in more depth.
Reimagining a Classic
An early level design for the 'Hook the Duck' arcade game demonstrating how up to six players could compete in a traditionally solo experience. The hexagonal shape of the design ensures a head to head game with a level playing field. Players must hook the most ducks from a shared pool to win, and can throw snowballs at their opponent to make them drop the duck they have currently hooked.
Duck Hunt
An open pool design was chosen to allow for less predictable duck pathing, upping the challenge of the game. The size of the pool allowed for large numbers of ducks to be in play at all times, ensuring all players have a chance to score points. Special ducks worth more to player’s scores could bob in and out of view, appearing at random points in the pool to catch players unawares.
Saving Kitschmas
The final game hut model, illustrating how the aesthetic of a Christmas market can be translated into the head to head design required by the minigame. The art style for this level was intended to give a feel for the real Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, and so it required a blend of traditional Christmas market aesthetic with over the top seasonal kitsch.
A Christmas Convergence
The final level is designed to give the player an unobstructed view of the target ducks, their opponents, and digital representations of the prizes that can be won by playing the game (visible top). All necessary information is available to the player at a single glance. A key feature of the game design was that this should be a social experience, and so a circular level design allows for maximum player to player interactivity during play.
A Winter Wonderland
In the final product, the player would be free to explore the Winter Wonderland experience before selecting one of the many activities available to interact with. The layout of the game world would be based on the map of the real world Winter Wonderland.