VR Sea Legs – Update 8

Status:
We continued working on the Seaside Town level, and to give it a bit more life we added some textures. We reviewed and added our script for the voiceover lines, and on Saturday I recorded my good friend and amazing vocal talent Maureen Honoré. Here’s a bit of the intro and a couple work in progress screenshots.

SOUND:

Our first communication with the player!

Seaside town, now with more textures.

First unlock of the bonus levels!

Content Unlock:
This week we open up a bonus area called Deep Dive! This is where the user will learn how to swim. At its core, the swimming movement is just a slower form of basic flight. So why would we add a bonus level on the same topic of flight? Because the environment makes a huge difference when dealing with simulated motion. Flying in space feels categorically different than swimming in water.

One of the big differences is that Deep Dive! puts you in the ocean, and this allows us to define a horizon line. In the First Flight level, you play in space with no horizon line. When players see the horizon line, it shows them which way is down, and it allows them to orient themselves more quickly. In air, this can trigger visual height intolerance – this is far more common in people then acrophobia (the fear of heights).

Swimming completely changes the player’s perspective, and eliminates the discomfort. People swimming know they can’t fall to their death.

Part of our methodology in choosing different art styles for each of the movement systems is that expands the player’s palate of experience. Learning those systems in new art styles expands the player’s tolerance for a variety of environments as well. We’re hopeful that this combination will create a quicker adoption of ease in movement in VR.