/Seeds of Life
Dev Time: May - July 2021 Roles: Developer / Game Designer Tools: Maya, Photoshop, Unity
Seeds of Life is a meditative VR experience that puts players in the midst of a sprititual undergrowth. Players navigate the space by interacting with Sprites, playful beings that help guide and reveal the path. The game's origin was about mycelium networks, underground fungal highways that transfer nutrients and sugars between plants and trees. Our goal was to deliver the message that we are all connected, in an abstract way, using nature as our tool for doing so.
This project was funded by the National Film and Television School and the StoryFutures Academy.
Key Responsibilities
- Worked with the Film directors to help translate their idea to VR
- Researched into VR Accesibility, including getting chats and guidance from Special Effect
- Conceptualised and prototyped with the Technical Designer the core game flow
- Designed, modelled and textured both the Undergrowth and the Forest environments
/Hand Tracking & Accessibility
With our goal to deliver this message of connection, I decided that accessibility needed to be at the forefront of how we designed the gameplay. I organised a chat with Special Effect, the gaming disabilities charity and also did some research into Walkin VR. Our Directors wanted to use Hand Tracking for the experience, which in general is better as players won't need to worry about gripping and holding controllers. We decided to avoid fine motor gestures when it came to the hand tracking, but also allowed it for the game to be completed with just one hand. We also decided to create a Gaze cursor to help those with motor issues, thus only needing head and neck mobility in order to complete the experience.
Interacting with Sprites using one hand
Interacting with Sprites using the Gaze cursor