Development Blog

Week five update:

This week Team Abode has been working on overcoming some technical challenges with multi-user VR. We haven’t been able to get our next virtual prototype out (testing simple interactions in the Hearth space) due to getting two separate/unique rooms running on the network. We want to get this done as soon as possible so the guest no longer comes into the host’s identical room. It will help us boost immersion in the space, as well as be useful knowledge for us to implement in our next prototypes.

Thus, we have taken the opportunity to focus more on user testing with our existing virtual prototype, as well as having our designers flesh out their non-virtual research so we can jump into next week with a head start.

Exiting Home: link

From a production standpoint, we have been still working to get everyone on the same page. Despite a minimal amount of confusion at times, we’re still all excited to produce work.

 

Week four update:

Week four we have been working full steam ahead on getting our technical goldspike done. We’ve gotten our two Vive Pros networked in the modified Hearth room, with simple player embodiment and voice chat. This goldspike will be tested on Friday 9/21, and Sunday 9/23, where we will be collecting data on how users begin to interact, how much time they feel comfortable spending together in the space, and observational testing on how users enter the experience.

In addition to this, we plan to do non-virtual playtests to gather preliminary information on interactions we were thinking of investigating in VR. Namely invitation sequences and how much agency we give the guest and host in entering the space. We also plan on running scenarios where we observe testers performing simple interactions together, such as planting flowers, feeding fish, or tossing coins in a well.

Design-wise, we have been working on the groundwork for our first prototype of four before halves. For virtual prototype 1, we plan to further investigate the methods of entry in the Hearth. We plan to have our design team work one week ahead of our tech team so we can get solid design documents and testing parameters, as well as review the feasibility of prototyping those interactions in our week-long sprints.

Going into quarters we plan to show our design work, goldspike, as well as our plans for the rest of the semester. Team Abode is excited to finally start development!

Week three update:

In week three we have further compiled our past week’s research into existing spaces in a series of documents for the team to review and for archival purposes. From this research we’re continuing our investigations into the home space specifically – running a series of interviews with people to find out methods that people use to invite others into their homes, the activities they engage in when there are guests, and rituals/customs/systems of entry or exit in their home spaces. A .pdf of our preliminary interview questions can be found here.

In terms of design, we’ve been laying down a lot of groundwork for our questions by creating artifacts like moodboards, user journeys, and video compilations of entry/exit in VR and game spaces.

These documents and artifacts will help us in bringing our team mates up to speed when they get back to Pittsburgh next week, as well as provide a good foundation for our development to start quickly.

In addition to this, we’ve been working on team branding – with a potential logo and poster mockups. The logo can be found at the top of the blog, though it’s still being iterated on and may change by next week.

The team morale is still good overall, and we’re all excited to finally be able to meet together in person next week.

Week two update:

This week we have spent our time conducting more research into the specific design questions we want to answer through our prototypes this semester. We all took the opportunity as the hardware came in, to play around with some existing multi-user VR experiences.

Rec Room, Facebook Spaces, Oculus Rooms, as well as games that simulate home/private spaces like Animal Crossing, Ultima Online, and Toontown.

From this research we distilled our design questions down into a couple topics:

Entry into space. Invitation:

• What reasons do you invite someone into your private space?
• Why do you invite people into your home?
• What are the implications of leaving gifts/messages for someone in a virtual space?
• What if someone’s “not at home” aka. not online/in the headset?
• Is there a physical action or ritual you need to perform to enter/exit the home space?

Shared attention:

• How do you entertain a guest in the VR space?
• What sorts of shared activities do you do with guests at home? (NOT gaming)
• How do you interact with another user?
• Speaking to each other over microphone is important in the home space.
• Embodiment is important –  a lot of people are looking at embodiment in VR, but we just need to establish a usable level of it for our experience.

Curated space:

• How does a home space evolve over time?
• Breakable/steal-able objects?
• How do we lend the space permanence and value for a user?
• Activities in a home are often maintenance activities, how do we get those activities to hold meaning for a VR user?

In terms of housekeeping, we’ve been excited to try out the new Vive Pro headset that we got in. The depth cameras open up some interesting possibilities for our project and we’ve been considering using them for asymmetrical experiences (one person in a HMD, one out).

In addition to this, we’ve finally got access to a second room to have our second Vive setup so we can begin work on networking headsets. Our Tech Gold Spike is to use one of the summer rooms and put two users in the space.

The Project:

VR Home is a project based around tackling research questions relating to the concept of a virtual home. In previous research cycles of this project, teams have looked into what home means to them, the extension of home spaces and transitions between virtual and physical home spaces (aka. the notion of the virtual-physical hybrid home). This semester, we will be aiming to create three multi-user VR-Home experiences, all focused on multi-user scenarios.

The Task:

We have been tasked with creating various multi-user VR prototypes investigating a series of design questions:

What does it mean to have multiple people feel at home in a virtual space?

What do we know affects the feeling of being at home in a virtual space?

How do social contracts affect the experience of a virtual home space for both the user and the guests? Specifically entry and exit.

How do we show shared attention and where users are focused in multi-user VR?

Meet the Team:

Omar Cheikh-Ali is one of our team’s co-producers. He brings design and art experience, as well as former production experience to the project.

Justin Fanzo is one of our team’s designers. He will also be helping the team with playtesting and documentation.

Shan Jiang is another one of our team’s designers. He is also interested in concept design as well.

Srujani Kamineni brings UI/UX design, 3D art, and will be helping organize and gather info from playtests.

Ketul Majmudar is one of our team’s designers/co-producers, he brings both art and programming experience to the team, and will be co-producing.

Miao Ren is our team’s programmer. She brings networking VR experience as well as UX design experience.

First Update:

This week has mostly consisted of getting the project team up and running. We had a meeting with our client, Jessica Hammer, earlier during the summer since half our team was in Pittsburgh, and this week we had our second meeting with her as well as our faculty advisors. This helped us clarify our design goals and set us on the right path to begin researching to show our advisors and client next week.

In addition to this, we spent some time to establish lines of communication among our team, starting work on organizational strategies (the scrum board, meeting documentation, etc.), and getting our equipment/theming lists ready.

We’re all excited to get all of our team members together, start working and really dig into the research questions this semester.