At the beginning of Week 4, the team pitched an initial experience concept to our faculty members. We suggested that we could make a VR experience where users could enter one of the quarterbacks’ rooms and pick up objects that have special significance to that quarterback. When a user picks an object up, a video clip showing the importance of that object could play. Our faculty members agreed that this experience would be a good use of extra footage that did not make it into a QB1 episode, but felt that we needed to give the user a story to tie the footage together, as well as a choice that would allow the user to affect the story, in order for the experience to be engaging. With that feedback, we went back to the drawing board and came up with the following interaction loop:
In this loop, the experience would start with the user receiving a text from one of the quarterbacks, asking for a favor. To fulfill the request, the user will have to go into VR. Once the user has explored the VR environment, they can choose whether or not to successfully fulfill the request. Then, the quarterback will respond by giving something to the player, which the player can see through AR.
Here is an example scenario:
1. Tayvon asks you to go to his room and find his locker code, which he forgot. He needs to get into his locker to get his equipment for a big game today.
2. The user goes into Tayvon’s room in VR and searches for the code. After moving an object, the user finds a doctor’s note that indicates that Tayvon is injured, and shouldn’t play in today’s game. Then the user finds the locker code.
3. Back in text, the user can choose to either give Tayvon the code and know that he might injure himself further in the game, or refuse to give Tayvon the code so that he won’t play today.
4. Depending on which choice the user made, the user sees a video clip from – either Tayvon getting injured, or sitting out of the game.
5. Tayvon gives the user something in AR. For example, if he was able to play in the game (and get injured), he gives you the trophy the team won in the game.
While the exact experience is getting ironed out, the team knows that we want to try to use Google AR, Google Daydream (VR), and a messenger bot, so the programmers started prototyping simple interactions using these technologies. At the same time, the artists finalized the team’s branding materials, and started making assets to populate the VR and AR experiences.