When visited a VR arcade for the first time, I was a bit disappointed with how the introduction of the medium was handled. The headset was put on just one participant of the group and the rest had to watch how everything got explained.
This gave me an idea to develop an introductory environment for VR Arcades: a multiplayer playground where each basic step gets explained. I started out by selecting those basic steps: looking, moving by teleporting and interacting with objects.
A moodboard was created to determine a visual style for this environment; a mixture of scifi and neon to create that ‘arcady’ feeling.
The first step in shaping the environment is the creation of a so called ‘greybox’: using simplified geometry like boxes, you can quickly map out a rough shape to test the flow of the map and make big changes in an early stage.
By dividing the set in several ‘level-pieces’, work could easily be divided between greyboxing, modeling, interaction programming and set dressing. This allowed each piece to be tested and changed individually without the need to overhaul the entire level.
The introduction starts of with the basic principle of looking around. A lot of new VR users have no idea you have the freedom to look everywhere, so I decided this would be a good first step. By providing the players with visual queues I attempt to trigger them into looking around them and turning 180 degrees towards the track.
The next step is the use of the controllers to teleport to highlighted points. These points are set up per player to avoid them crossing eachother in this early stage.
After everyone has this under control I proceed by introducing physical properties, like how to cross a large void, duck under a pipe or climb a ladder in VR.
One of the main ideas, is to keep the virtual position of the players somewhat synchronous to their physical position. For this I implemented ‘player-lanes’ and checkpoints. Each player has their own route, but each route is exactly the same as the other. The checkpoint allows for each setpiece to be simultaniously started, and as a gathering point for all players.
After the first checkpoint I switch to area teleportation, which gives the player a bit more freedom in where to go. I combined this with a ‘Frogger’ style conveyor segment where they have to work together to get across.
The following segment introduces object interaction, such as pulling a lever or turning a wheel, but is still in development at this time.