Finishing the platformer and VR experience

Both games are now finally finished. We had a few small problems with the VR experience such as collision control. but the finishing product is something im very proud of.

As for the platformer, I was able to convert it to a mobile app and has since been uploaded to the app store. Im very happy with how this turned out and can be downloaded for IOS and Android.

Lastly we had the idea of including an over world map to the platformer to show players what level they are on and whats to come. This turned out great and really helps new players know whats going on.

Finally, in terms of the VR experience, unfortunately me or Nathan wasn't able to incorporate collision. After hours of trying and many inovative methods, the player is still able to go through meshes.

As a group we feel if we had another team member or more time to work on this we would of been able to finished this. Although this is a step back for the team, we will not let this be detrimental to us and are still very proud of the game we are able to publish.

VR experience demo

Before we finished with the VR experience, we decided to add some menus to help the player. Wherever the player is, they can show a controls and map menu to help them.

This gives a really clear view on what every button and control does. After adding all the water orbs to the relevant places on the map, we decided it would be helpful to add crosses on the map to give the player a small clue on the whereabouts of each orb.

After these finishing touches were added, we recorded a demonstration video which can be seen below.

Creating the flying mechanics

This was a very hard task to get right and took alot of tweaking and testing. To start I had to figure out the logic behind the direction to move. As we were going for a kind of superman mechanic, both hand positions would have to be taken into consideration.

To start I took the average of both hand positions relative to the VR helmet. The idea behind this was the further away the players hands were, the faster they would go. We soon decided to move the point from the VR helmet, to a point just in front of your chest so you would be stationary in a relaxed default position.

We made it so you only fly when pressing the A button on the right controller to prevent unwanted movement. When flying, we decided to make it so you can go faster when holding any of the controller grips and extra fast when both and held. This allows experienced flyers to go faster and newer players to take it slow.

Turning became difficult as there was no sharp turn. We decided to make it so you can turn with the left analog stick around 40 degrees instead of a smooth turn to reduce motion sickness.

After the showcase, alot of people were stuck above a water orb and there was no easy way to descent straight so we added the ability to ascend and descent with the right analog stick.

After alot of tweaking we think we got the flying mechanics near perfect. It looks and feels very cool and immersive with a low risk of motion sickness.