Log Update 2

Missed my meeting with my supervisor due to illness and scheduling conflicts but used email to pass on my weekly update. This past week I concentrated on doing more research into VR and motion control technologies, getting information sources for use in my report. I also decided that I will be using the Leap Motion device instead of the Microsoft Kinect as my main control method for the game. I chose the Leap Motion because it offers exactly the sort of thing I am after in a small and convenient package without unnecessary extras.

My plan for this week is to obtain a Leap Motion device and practice using it within Unity. I will also be starting to look for suitable assets, with appropriate licensing, that I can use.

Log Update 1

This is the first of a series of weekly log posts that cover my meetings with my supervisor, detailing what was discussed and creating plans for the following week.

In this first week we discussed my proposal and clarified some points with it. Specifically I gave details on gameplay and setting aspects of my project. The gameplay will mostly be walking around the game world and interacting objects that may lead to physics or gesture based puzzles. I plan to use a science fiction based setting, specifically a space station style environment. We also discussed the technology I want to use. I had already decided that I would be using Unity as the basis for building the project and was thinking about using the Kinect for controlling the game. The Leap Motion device was mentioned as a possible hands free control option which I will look into.

Virtual Reality is a large focus of my project and part of my report will cover my research into the history of VR and how it applies to games over the years. The primary VR technology I will probably be using is the Oculus Rift though I will be researching other VR technologies and looking into people involved with the history of VR.

I want to be able to demonstrate my programming skills with this project and as such the AI I plan to design and implement for the game will be very important. I haven’t worked out the specifics everything I want the AI to do but ideas I have currently include agents that follow the player as they navigate the world but keeping while keeping a certain distance away and at least one room which is guarded by agents that based their patrol patterns on the last place you were detected.

For this next week I plan to do more reading on VR (the technologies that can be used and how and the people involved), motion control (specifically the Kinect and Leap Motion, though if more come up in my research they will also be looked into), inspirational games and also look into the appropriate assets I could use. By the end of the week I want to have a firm idea what hardware I will be using so I can start practising using them.

Final Year Project Proposal

This is the proposal for my final year project. I plan to create a short game called Awakening in which the player navigates the strange place they are in and trying to figure out where they are and what is going on. I want to give an immersive first person experience and so accordingly I plan to have the game to be controlled via a Microsoft Kinect so that their hand movements will control the player. I also want to explore the use of Virtual Reality in games and plan to research this as well as try to implement the use of an Oculus Rift in my project to increase the level of immersiveness. I’m using Unity to build the project because it allows ease of accessibility and compatibilty with the different hardware I want to use. The primary focus of the project is my programming skills and I plan to demonstrate that by creating AI controlled characters that act and react to the player either by hindering or possibly helping them. Following blog posts here will be weekly updates after meeting with my project supervisor about the work I have done and need to do next as well as covering topics of research that I will need for the project.