PICOTERA
Design and Art
When designing the character, we considered the art style of the game and make sure the character fit into this lovely building, and we also discussed with two programmers in our team to make sure the model works in VR and would looks wired. The tiny player only uses two controllers, we cannot track the motion of his or her feet, thus we decided not to add legs to the model. One of the most challenge part of this project was to make sure the scale is correct. We have a big space inside game, but we have to map it into the small real world play area, thus we designed several "vehicle" to transport our player inside the game. For example, the Ferris wheel was used to take the tiny player some seconded floor to third floor, and he or she in real world does not need to move at all. During this project, I was experimenting making animation with expression and node editor. It is quick different from traditional keyframe animation and motion capture, but it is really useful when objects' movement connect with each other. |
Intro
PICOTERA is a two player VR game, which two players work as friend and helping each other solve series of puzzle. Inside the game, two players are different in scale, one is giant and standing outside the building, the other one is tiny and being stuck inside the building. I worked as a model artist with anther artist Jinyi, and we also designed the puzzle inside the building. I was in charge of making the clock tower, sundae house, lollipop, cable car, carrousel as well as the Ferris wheel. Iterate
We did several playtest and iterated to make sure two player have enough communication during the game play, and each of the in charge of some parts that could solve the puzzle. For example, the tiny player could read the instructions inside the building, and he or she will tell the giant player how to operate some parts of the house. We also paid a lot attention on networking. Two players can see each other's movement, and both of them can see the changing of environment after their operations. People likes waving hands lot, thus we offer them a cable car time for waving and say "Hello" to each other. Playtest helped as notice the important of sound effect. We added more sound effect when they successfully solved one puzzle, for example, when the tiny play got onto the Ferris wheel and the giant player winded the wheel, the background music becomes lively, and winding sound effect helps players understand that they are in the right track. |
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