Tweaking the idea....

 When the project was initially pitched, it was to be set in an accurate 1940's setting and time. I have changed how I'm going to approach this as I found that in researching and trying to remain committed to the time period was limiting what I felt that I would be able to achieve with the game.

I decided to take the direction of tweaking the world setting to a fictional steam-punk-esq setting while retaining some of the more realistic aspects such as the player body. The style that I would potentially looking at would be one similar to Bioshock infinite (2k Games, 2013)

Bioshock Infinite (2K Games, 2013) 

 I found that trying to accurately re-create a 1940's environment from scratch plus a VR game would be too difficult. It would be a choice between the environment or making the game and within the time frame of the individual project I quickly found that the workload would not be reasonable. This will also allow me more freedom to use my library of assets as they would not all be strictly 1940's/ era- appropriate.
My focus for the project I feel is going to be a realistic player avatar makes the player feel immersed in the game world and the fiction of the setting. 

I'm still looking at sticking to the original guidelines of the project with respect of events and gameplay however I am also to reducing the scope to focus on quality over quantity. 

Building a poster

 At this early stage of the project I wanted to try and capture the feel and style of the project and create a personal reference for myself for the project. 

While developing the project I thought it would make for a productive break and offer any potential players a look into the project while it was still being built. 

I took a screenshot inside Unreal Engine for the assets so far, these are a mix of store assets and created assets inside a run down environment. I also used this as an opportunity to finally decide on a name for the project "Dead Flowers" .

I took the screenshot into photoshop to tweak the colours and add some noise to the image- I was aiming for a David Fincher style look so I added strong tints of colour with the noise and then overlaid the image with a font that I thought suited the game and the film noir outline of the project. 

Finished Poster

Research and historial accuracy (with a dash of mechanics)

 The game that I'm looking to create is set within the late 1940's, so this means research- I'm going to hone in on a specific example that I found surprising and that would be elevators. 

I have found myself researching the nature of elevator to authentically portray them but not nessecerily accurately. The game isn't an exact replica of the era but more like a movie or film- it's something to take liberties with and play with but still be close enough for the player to remain convinced that the game is still set within the 1940's.

From Architecture Magazine (retrieved 07/11/2021)

The same could be said for mechanics in VR and game in general. Adaptions have to be made and elements gamified, the world needs to exist in symbols and hints. For example level design, waist high boxes in the open have become synonymous with cover due to the advent of games such as Gears of War. So how does this apply to The Detective? How do we gamifiy elements of detective work and also make it immersive and fun within a VR setting? 

These are the design questions I'm currently wrestling with. The solutions are likely to need some testing but I'm looking at a journal that the player carries with them that serves as UI. This would ground the player in the setting and serve as a good way of keeping the UI in world. This is only an idea at this stage and I'll need to investigate this further in engine before I make any final judgement decisions. I feel that a diegetic (in world) UI is going to be the best option for the game but the hardest to implement without elements breaking and doing more harm to the player experience- or potentially even too obtuse and obscure for the player to notice the information that they've been given.