Demo
Introduction
My team, Yokai Studios, was responsible for creating an informative VR videogame that includes researching a cause that encourages the player to take action in their own lives to contribute to said cause. Our subject was the concern of deforestation and how it affects animals' livelihoods.
Story
You are a Tanuki in modern-day Japan, and your family is going hungry. You realize that trees are starting to disappear at a rapid rate around you. You must go to the city to retrieve food for your family, but beware! Animal control is lurking around the corner.
Characters & Environment
Single player game where the player embodies a Tanuki that has been forced into the city to look for food. An enemy pest control man is patrolling the area and will try to catch the player if spotted. The environment consists of low-poly 3D-models with flat color and/or patterns. The scene isset during night-time to enhance the feeling of being stealthy.
How do we play?
You must hone in on your stealth skills as a Tanuki, and avoid being seen and caught by the animal control patrolling the area.
Navigate the city by moving the paws in a rowing motion in order to find food scattered around the city. Each food item will come with text related to the problems animals forced into cities can face. Race against the clock as trees begin disappearing around the city the longer the player takes. Find all 4 food items to complete the game.
Responsibilities
I was responsible for project management, UI/UX design, game design, concept art, and 3D art.
Lane Tapp was responsible for game design and code design.
Ryan Matthews was responsible for game design and code design.
Timeline
Initial Concept
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Theme:
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Deforestation
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Japanese setting at night with 4 streets surrounding 3 buildings with a garbage area and garden
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Player controls a Tanuki
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Text blocks explaining that the forest is low on resources, the family is hungry, and you need to gather resources from the nearby neighborhood
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Player leaves the forest and their family to get materials from the city
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Player can only hold so much in their paws at once, so they must make multiple trips to get all the resources they need
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Mechanics:
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Stealth around the different buildings and avoid being caught by animal control
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NPC animal control will chase the player when spotting them and if caught, restart the level
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Find items around the city to bring back to the family
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Limit the number of items to be carried at a time to encourage returning to home multiple times
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Forest disappears over time at set intervals
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Art style
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Low poly
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Concept Art
UI/UX Design
3D Art
Player Control
Prototype
Research
Some factors we found were:
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After amassing over 500 reports on the effects of urbanization on local wildlife, it was found that about 60% reported that urbanization had a negative impact on the wildlife. [1]
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Another effect of urbanization that is a cause for concern is forest fragmentation. Forest fragmentation is “a landscape level process in which a specific habitat is progressively subdivided into smaller and more isolated fragments”. [2]
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Forest fragmentation is “one of the most serious causes diminishing biological diversity in recent decades”. [3]
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By embodying an animal body, people have been proven to be more sympathetic to the animal they embody as demonstrated in the studies organized by “Research Square”. [4]
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The next paper further explores how animal avatars can still provide the "Illusion of Virtual Body Ownership (IVBO)'' similar to humanoid avatars and tests several different approaches for implementing the animal perspective and controls. [5]
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[1] Maureen H Murray,Cecilia A Sánchez,Daniel J Becker,Kaylee A Byers,Katherine EL Worsley-Tonks,Meggan E Craft, “City sicker? A meta-analysis of wildlife health and urbanization”,
[2] Mohammed Y. Said, Joseph O. Ogutu, Shem C. Kifugo, Ogeli Makui, Robin S. Reid, Jan de Leeuw, Effects of extreme land fragmentation on wildlife and livestock population abundance and distribution, Journal for Nature Conservation, Volume 34, 2016, Pages 151-164, ISSN 1617-1381, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnc.2016.10.005.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S161713811630142X
[3] Cousin, Jarrad. (2000). Forest Fragmentation: Wildlife and Management Implications. Pacific Conservation Biology. 6. 273. 10.1071/PC000273.
[4] D. Pimentel and S. Kalyanaraman, “How multi-sensory animal embodiment in virtual reality influences environmental threat processing and conservation behaviors,” 2021. https://assets.researchsquare.com/files/rs-957911/v1/5c477c7e-3c97-4af8-b9b5-670b77816c8d.pdf?c=1634146113
[5] A. Krekhov, S. Cmentowski and J. Krüger, "The Illusion of Animal Body Ownership and Its Potential for Virtual Reality Games," 2019 IEEE Conference on Games (CoG), 2019, pp. 1-8, doi: 10.1109/CIG.2019.8848005.