SPATIUM | VR NON-EUCLIDEAN GAME

Project Premise

While there are games that do explore the non-euclidean space, where space does not follow the standard rules of realism and instead, it seems like multiple spaces are seamlessly conjoined into one, the VR market is still a blank slate regarding non-euclidian games, with the exception of experimental mini games in development.

Game Purpose

This project allows for the chance to play around with human perceptions of linear space in an immersive environment like VR by utilising the non-euclidean geometrical form made famous by cosmic horror author H.P. Lovecraft.

Project Narrative

Set in a world where the atmosphere has exceeded the safe levels of breathable oxygen, it has led humankind to live in P.O.D.S (Portable Ozonation Dispensary Submersion). The player is invited to SPATIUM Inc. to test the new P.O.D.S prototype's ability to create pocket dimensions. Though due to its experimental nature the dimensions are torn and stitched together. The player is to find the checkpoint failsafe to go back into linear space.

Marketability

According to the Oculus VR Market Report, the biggest faction of players in general, not withholding any platform, come from a segment of players they call the 'Story Seekers'. They contribute to 23% of the American game market. On average they are aged between 25 to 44 and 53% of 'Story Seekers' are the 'most gender-balanced' of all gamer factions. As the name suggests, these players have a preference for story-driven, isolated and immersive gameplay. Thus with this project, it would be wise to aim for this demographic as they would be most fitted to the design of this game project.

Core Experience

The player moves around the space and enters 3 different worlds non-linearly due to the non-euclidean space meshing all 3 worlds into one walking journey. The player will be guided by Simone, a SPATIUM Inc. facilitator who will be talking to the player throughout the experience.

Art Direction

To show the connection of non-euclidean geometry, the art direction will follow closely the description of H.P. Lovecraft's novels as he is one of the core influencers of the artistic aspect of non-euclidean design in sci-fi fiction. Therefore the art direction will follow the architecture of surrealist designs as well as realistic textures.

VR Sickness Research

Due to motion sickness being one of the largest issues within VR, I did some extensive research on the topic

P.O.D.S Design

This is the design of the PODs which is meant to integrate sci-fi designs with the art direction I have for the rest of the game. The design of the PODs is also largely dependent on motion sickness as from my accumulated research I’ve concluded that placing a cockpit frame around the player can actually reduce the percentage of motion sickness. 

World Setting

Structura

The first world will be the representation of civilization before the oxygenation influx. So it will include a surrealist depiction of themed rooms commonly found in mansions and castles. From my perspective, in recreating civilization the remaining records left of previous human civilization will mostly be about more extravagant ways of living, forgetting the middle-class lifestyle as it tends to be in recorded history. 

Arbores

The second world is called Arbores. It portrays Earth's flora and fauna though the setting will be an enormously exaggerated sized forest. In this world setting, forests are considered a rarity as fire sparks more massively and more instantaneous in a pure oxygen environment. Therefore due to most of the forests succumbing to forest fires in the early years, trees are generally never seen by the current society. 

Antrum Aqua

The last world will be the 'climax' level and will go to the scariest and most undiscovered part of the planet, the sea. Due to its mysterious nature, it will incorporate a more Lovecraftian Eldritch horror to its design with a large tentacle monster encompassing the entire world. The environment would be a cave-like space. The way I see it, for this world setting, I think there would be more contemplation on the sea as the next possible habitat for humans as land is no longer a safe option.

Level Design

To create the non-euclidean effect I used planes with a stencil buffer shader to emulate the effect. In order to use this method, I made the level design modular so that each room can have multiple touchpoints. Below shows the modular layouts I used for each level. It shows the layout from Scene 1 to Scene 11 with each scene revolving around their respective room number (Scene 1 focuses on Room 1 and so on). It doesn’t make sense from here what with everything overlapping but I had this open in Procreate so each room was on its own layer allowing me to open & close overlapping layers without issue. In this layout, it shows the main room, the directly connected rooms and the rooms you can see through just by peeking through the doors of the directly connected rooms.

For further in depth information and development logs you can view my final year project documentation HERE.