Pair Group Work in the Fall of 2025
Week 1 &2(9.22-10.5)
Group work: Inspiration and ideas
We wish to make something related to adventure and thrill for the audience to experience.
List of ideas
- Inspired by Gulliver’s Travels: We would like to take inspiration from the classic novel by Jonathan Swift about the adventures of Gulliver. The audience will experience the sense of scale as they become giants and dwarfs in different scenes.
- Inspired by traditional Indian and Chinese art: Users will be transported into a styled world of Indian and Chinese art where every object is made with that style.
- Inspired by a sci-fi series called Dark Matter: in this game players can enter a world of “doors” through a large box invented by a scientist. Each door in this world leads to another parallel universe. Players will find the correct door to return to their original world while exploring one door after another, and they will also see another possibility of life choices in different time spaces. This ultimately leads to a philosophical question: Is the path we didn’t choose really a better life?
References
<Reviews for A Fisherman’s Tale>
<Dark Matter>
<Gulliver’s Travels>
Week 1 &2(9.22-10.5)
Individual work: Paper Reading and thinking
INDIVIDUAL THINKING ABOUT XR
Theoretically, the XR we usually discuss now includes three parts: VR, AR, and MR. VR allows users to enter a purely virtual world, AR “sticks” virtual elements into the real world, and MR enables interaction between the virtual and the real. In Brenda Laurel’s article, it is mentioned that the core of true VR lies in immersion and interactivity, while the core of XR is to enhance or expand human perception and connect the virtual with the real. I fully agree with this view.
During the long – term development of VR, I think one of the main reasons why it has not become a consumer – level product is that many developers and merchants of VR products do not emphasize the importance of the user experience and the reason for presenting content in VR form. Instead, they only regard VR as a tool for showing off skills. User psychology, behavioral habits, and simulation may be the most important aspects to focus on in future VR development. It’s not just about being “cool”; more natural interaction methods are often more popular and acceptable among users than those that are cool but complex or go against common sense.
To some extent, I believe that the research, development, and product design of VR are quite similar to human – factors engineering, while VR is just in a digital way. In addition, different from ordinary movies and games, VR movies and games should give users initiative, allowing them not only to watch but also to experience.
Although XR is still a niche area for now, I believe that one day in the future, it will completely change and revolutionize the way humans perceive the world.
Week 3(10.6-10.12)
Group work: More specific inspiration
<Alice in Wonderland>
<2D Game: Dreamfarer>
<Seventy-two transformations of the monkey king>: Pull out a hair to transform into another avatar + Props that can change in size and are used to assist players
<It takes two>: Through the change of perspective, the player is given a new perspective experience
Based on this inspirations, we came up with two main mechanisms of the game playing, one is "switching", which means the player can switch into different objects or creatures in the scene of the world to finish the level. And at the same time, they could also have the chance to experience the world in a totally different perspective, which would be funny and skillful. Another mechanism is to use a tool, which is able to change its size to assist the player in various conditions.
Week 4(10.13-10.17)
Individual work: Paper Reading and new ideas
In book Man, Play, and Games, Caillios categorizes gaming and player attitudes into two fundamental types: competitive (like boxing, racing, chess) where players actively engage with opponents or environments, and opportunity-based (such as gambling, lotteries) where they passively await outcomes. In our group’s game design project, we explored expanding beyond these “fundamental attitudes” to create hybrid systems that combine competitive parkour elements with exploratory puzzle-solving, offering fresh perspectives for categorizing game systems.
Therefore, we take “lucid dreaming” as the core setting, integrating VR first-person perspective with “morph transformation + puzzle parkour” gameplay to attempt breaking through the classification boundaries of traditional games. From the player’s attitude perspective, it possesses the dual characteristics of “competitiveness” and “exploration”: parkour levels require players to operate actively like traditional competitors (similar to a boxer’s “all-out effort”), while morph transformation puzzles (such as transforming into an insect for microscopic exploration) demand patient observation of environmental variables like a “chance game,” and finally making choices that lead to an ending. We aim to reconstruct the way players interact with the world, and by combining VR as a special medium, amplify the contrast between the “giant” and “microscopic perspectives.” The “morph switching” mechanism blurs the traditional game rule of “fixed character abilities”—players are both adherents of the rules and participants who “rewrite the rules” through form changes. This design implicitly aligns with the view that “game classification requires multiple attitude dimensions,” providing a new possibility of “dynamic role attitude” for systematic classification.
Inspired by this, a new world view idea came into my mind, so I wrote this new game overview:
While sleepwalking involves unconscious wandering in reality during sleep, dreamwalking refers to consciously traversing dreamscapes. In our technologically advanced future, humanity has developed a new dimension of consciousness through "dreams." Some thrive in these dreamlike realms, creating fantastical worlds they obsess over, while others fear they might overload their brains and lose control of reality. Isabella, a high school girl who dismisses dreams as meaningless, constantly tries to wake up after accidentally entering them. When have a nap this afternoon, however, she finds herself trapped in another ”person”'s dream. Determined to return to reality, she must track down the dream's owner and wake him. But as she progresses, she realizes this isn't a human dream at all—it's her cat, who sleeps 16 hours daily!
In this game, players will assume the perspective of Isabella who is trapped in the dream. By skillfully changing their own forms and using items, they can solve the levels following the clues and find a way to escape the dream, wake up, and return to the real world. During this process, players will have the ability to switch and transform into different avatars, such as animals, plants, or even insects, and explore the micro or giant world from different and amazing perspectives.
Game types: VR, 3D, first-person perspective, adventure, puzzle-solving, parkour
Also, I accomplished the character setting and improved main mechanisms:
1. Character Design
【Protagonist(Player-First Perspective)】
Name:Isabella
Description:A 16-year-old girl suffering from sleepwalking is trapped in a waking dream and unable to wake up
Attire:Middle high school dress
NPC 1: The cat, a fat orange cat , dreaming of being a handsome cat
2. Mechanism
【Core Loop-01 Switch Avatar】
bird & ant
In the tutorial level, players unlock two skill perspectives, namely animal perspective (bird) and microscopic insect perspective (ant), which will follow the player like pets in the following levels.
Players can switch between three perspectives: human, bird, and ant to cope with different levels and situations.
【Core Loop-02 Using Tool*1】
Dream pen:
It can 'draw' objects that can be temporarily materialized in the air (bridge, cube, steps)
• But only one shape can be saved at a time (players must decide which to keep)
• The drawn entity will fade out after 15 seconds to enhance the rhythm
Week 5(10.20-10.24)
Individual work: story line and level design script
Initially, I wanted to create a platform game for players to experience the plot. However, after taking Ana's advice and having discussions, I finally decided to change from a plot-driven parkour game to an open-world exploration game with these storylines as the background, giving players more freedom and space for creativity.
Week 6(10.27-10.31)
Scene design reference diagrams
I've searched for many reference pictures of children's room styles, aiming to create a playful and fantastical game environment. Meanwhile, I also referred to the design of the wall-mounted cat tree for part of the game's level design.
Room layout sketch(drawing and models in blender)
Based on references, I drawn the sketch of room layout and transformed it into draft models in blender.
Week 7(11.3-10.7)
Group work: “dream pen” test in Unity
We shared documents with the help of Github.
I imported the draft model into Unity and collaborated with Ashiwin on GitHub. We tested the basic running, jumping, and "dream pen" functions in Unity.
Week 8(11.10-10.14)
Re-render lighting and materials of the scene
I added new global volume shader and bloom effect for the scene to build warmer ambient.
Week 9(11.17-10.21)
Rebuild and replace hands model
I remade a realistic hand model and skeletal animation in Blender and replaced the original controller. I thought this can increase the realism and persuasiveness of the player's avatar, thus enhancing the sense of immersion.
In Unity, I used both the animation state machine and code control to achieve seamless switching from joystick button presses to hand movements.
Week 10(11.24-10.28)
Preparation for “switch” mechanism
I built models and skeleton animations for the ant and bird in order to accomplish the "switch" function in game.
I also use animation state machine to control them in Unity.
Week 11(12.1-12.5)
“Switch” mechanism code-test in Unity
It took me long time to achieve the function of switch between three avatars and also change perspectives of the world under different avatars. *asked ChatGpt a lot lol