Project Schedule (With updates)

 For this project, I'm looking at spending the first month and a half looking into the VR mechanics, with things such as item interaction- that is picking up and grabbing items- however as this is a key element I could spend until November trying to see if this functions as intended. 

From November to late December I hope to be working on the level itself and trying to make it as detailed as possible- I'm aiming for the level to be small but filled with little details for the player to find. 

January is when I hope to have the project mostly completed and COVID permitting, allow users to test that game and experience the project. This will allow me to take on feedback and make any improvements and tweaks to the project based on the user feedback. 

The timeline at the moment then looks like;

September: Player Avatar and initial blocking and scoping
October: Player avatar and mechanics
November: Level design and asset/ prop creation
December: Level Scripting and initial user feedback
January: Final tweaks and completion. 

Update 23/11/2021:

The player avatar and animation side of the project was more complicated that initially planned, this has pushed everything back and means that I'm going to be using more assets from my library than initially planned, while this is a disappointment I'm quite happy with how the avatar is progressing. There are still some key bugs and issues that need to be fixed- including one engine bug that I will not be able to fix and will need to work around- which is slowing my progress significantly. 

28/12/2021:

I have added a tutorial segment to the game, it is basic but I'm happy with how it has progressed. The player avatar is still causing some issues and I'm hoping that I can get these resolved however I have had some health issues that have stopped me over the last two weeks from making significant progress. 
The main level currently has one room with little interaction as I've been focused on trying to resolve the avatar issues. This is frustrating- but I feel it is still progressing. I had the opportunity to get some initial user feedback from non-VR/ video game players and that feedback led me to create the tutorial level. Unfortunately with COVID in place it is still a risk to allow users to visit my home and get they to test the game on my personal VR headset. 

The Detective, a Brief Introduction!

 The Basics: 


The Detective:

- VR Game
- First Person Detective gameplay
- Focus on thriller and horror elements
- Minimal if any combat
- Set in the 1930's in a single corridor and apartment block, with the focus on detail over scale.

Inspirations from other relevant formats:
- L.A Noire: https://store.steampowered.com/app/722230/LA_Noire_The_VR_Case_Files/

L.A Noire VR Case Files (Rockstar Games)

- Half-Life: Alyx: https://store.steampowered.com/app/546560/HalfLife_Alyx/

Half-Life: Alyx (Valve Games)

The focus is to provide an immersive and interactive game, Half Life Alyx published by Valve really showed how VR can be used to really enhance the player's immersion through environmental interactivity. The reason for this is though not ever item is useful most of them can be interacted with in some way- this lends itself greatly to the idea of an investigation VR game. 

This has been done prior in L.A Noire VR case files however as this was a fairly early VR game the elements of intractability and general playability suffer from the lack of a cohesive control scheme and early generation VR technology for things such as player tracking. 

Both of these games have a strong focus on VR immersion. This is something that I'm hoping to emulate via a strong player avatar and strong visuals and physics interaction. 

Why VR for this project?

The reason that I decided to work on VR was because it is an area of development I wanted to explore further with the unique challenges that it presents- it puts the player in the game world and posses some interesting challenges such as the player body, the potential for increased interactivity with the game world.

Personally I think it could add to the project, inside VR your natural instinct is to look around and interact with the environment. I'm hoping that the project will engage with players who like to find secrets and explore. The premise of a detective game seemed like a natural fit with this idea.

I'm thinking of games such as Observer( Bloober Team, 2017) and Draugen (Red Thread Games, 2019), they both have rich environments for the player to explore and interact with but I feel they could be enhanced by having VR gameplay - instead of clues that are highlighted to the player or a button prompt- let the player find things from themselves. This will need careful design in my project as I am aware that this could lead to potential player frustration.

Looking at mechanics, I could have the player find clues hidden under objects on environmental cues that would otherwise be missed- because inside VR the player is face to face with the world that they're in. I could have a player journal as a physical book in the world ( though this might prove too much of a challenge) where they can make notes and that acts as a pause menu/ log or literally as a journal keeping the players on track. 

Observer (Bloober Team, 2017)

Draugen (Red Thread Games, 2019)

There is also the potential for things to go wrong with the project, while I do have some experience with VR development, I would not say at this stage that I am an expert. There is potential that I could get stuck on some aspect of the project or that it simply isn't engaging. There are issues that I will have to tackle as they come up as I can't plan for every eventuality. Hopefully COVID permitting I will be able to gather some user feedback as the project matures but it can't be relied upon as of writing.