It always helps to have a plan. Knowing your goals also helps you narrow down your ideas. It also increases the chances of you hitting your target when you finish. Your list of goals will probably look a bit different than mine, but there are some good ones in here for any VR project.
Simplicity. That’s gotta be goal number one since I want to make something I could possibly finish myself if I can’t get other people involved (everyone I know is busy making their own projects). So it’ll be one to two characters and one environment. That’s for starters.
Story. It’s cliche to say this, yes. But it’s still the bedrock upon which everything else rests.
Music. Baby Driver. Beat Saber. I love entertainment where music is integral to it.
Branching Narrative. Replay-ability is the key and the reason VR games fare so much better than VR stories. It also can give the illusion of choice. I must keep this to the bare minimum to keep in line with goal #1.
Interactive Character. Simulated awareness of you, the viewer/player. What is the most basic communication that I could possibly do? I’ve settled on answering yes/no questions with a nod or shake of the head. Since it’s interactive, what role do YOU play?
Quality Level of a Pixar Short. Okay, everybody says this. But I really haven’t seen much done in a game engine for VR that has either the design or animation chops of a Pixar short (except Baobab, and I still haven’t been able to see anything from Fable Studio). Based upon the Baby Dragon experience I built in UE4, clean transitions between animations are a challenging requirement of interactivity so I need to allow time to jump these hurdles.
Clarify ProtoViz process. Prototyping (games) + Pre-visualization (film) = ProtoViz. I'm not sure who coined the term but it makes a lot of sense. Try various tools and workflows in an attempt to find the most efficient way to communicate your vision early.
Pipeline. Brush up on and get more comfortable with Unity. Learn Substance Designer basics.
Accessible. Beyond the sheer fun of creation, what’s the point of creating entertainment if you can’t reach anyone to entertain?
Creative Director skillset. Practice and refine the skills of a Creative Director.
Next time we'll make some decisions about our target device!
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