The story concept comes from the idea that the world we are living in now is actually a fake, digital world created by someone else. The story is inspired by the movie The Island (2005), talking about how people found out that they are actually clones of real people, so they try to run away from the island in order to find their own life.
Many movies have this similar concept in their story.
Also, Elon Musk once said that “There’s a billion to one chance we’re living in base reality.” that has the same concept that we are living in a fake world.
The story is inspired by the movie The Island (2005), talking about how people found out that they are actually clones of real people, so they try to run away from the island find their own life.
The Island (2005)
Gameplay mechanism In my game, there will be two to three players who enter the game at the same time. Player one plays the role of a citizen trying to escape from the island without being spotted by the guards, but he/she does not know the right way to escape. Player two plays as the guard who monitors the CCTV. Once he/she finds someone trying to escape, they will launch the attack on them. Player three plays the helper guard who is also monitoring the CCTV, but he/she is trying to help citizens to escape by telling them the right way to go without being discovered by player two.
Communication The citizen can talk to the helper guard through certain gadgets in VR which can connect to the helper guard’s monitor. Through this, they can either talk directly or use gestures/messages to communicate. The citizen can get information from that, and the helper guard could guide the citizen to the right way to escape.
Cross-platform Players use different platforms to play this game. Player one needs to enter the VR world, while players two and three use AR to participate in the game. Player one will use the controller to navigate in the virtual world and manipulate the avatar trying to escape the island. While players two and three participate in the game through AR by tabbing on the screen or triggering AR content to launch an attack or open the escape door. The reason for using cross-platform is because I want to represent two different worlds through different media (VR and AR). Players who enter the virtual world are like clones living in clone islands in the movie The Island, living in a fake world and being monitored and controlled by people in the real world. The reality they believe only exists in the virtual world, and they may be just the characters or NPCs in a game whilst players who play the game through the screen or AR are like the doctors in the movie, monitoring the clones they create. Through programming or just tapping on the screen, they can change the game world or even decide the lives of characters in the game world.
Due to the Covid period, the opportunities for face-to-face interaction have decreased, making it difficult for people to get together. However, although VR technology meets the needs for remote gaming, travelling, and visiting the exhibitions together to a certain extent, the existing VR experience is still relatively lacking in sharing experiences with others in real-time interaction. Besides, though VR becomes more and more popular, the proportion of people owning VR headsets is still relatively low.
Many people still have no access to VR headsets, so if the game could be played through different platforms other than only VR, it might allow more players to enjoy the game together. Also, how players communicate and interact with others in-game through different platforms and how it affects players’ feeling of social presence still needs to be explored. Therefore, I want to explore the possibility of multiplayer shared experience and cross-platform techniques in VR for my final major project. In particular, my final major project will focus on the interaction and communication in shared experience, and how social interaction affects game experience and enhances social presence. The work combines the concept of multiplayer interaction behaviours and cross-platform asymmetric game design in VR and PC in order to create a remote gameplay system for both VR and PC users.
