What if ocean conservation was taught via a VR adventure?
Sea urchin populations have proliferated due to marine ecosystems being out of sync. Destroying kelp forests, threatening ocean resilience in the fight against climate change. This VR urchin smashing adventure teaches valuable lessons about the fragile ocean ecosystem.
The Process
This was my first experience building for virtual reality. This game, designed for Oculus Quest 1 and 2, introduces the user as a hammer-bearing scuba diver. Gamers start by purchasing items from a dive shop to aid them in the destruction of out of control sea urchins before they are able to consume an undersea kelp garden.
One of my favorite features in this game was the algorithm governing the urchins in the game. They would perpetually exist in a series of several states. First, wandering around randomly until they found nearby kelps (and storing kelp positions in a list), afterwards calculating the nearest kelp and heading towards that position. Once in contact with the kelp, an urchin would deplete the kelps health until it’s gone. If all the kelp is consumed by urchins in under the time limit - the player loses the game.
Other AI-governed elements were developed similarly: fish would be swimming around also searching for strings of kelp seeking cover, as well as the occasional great white shark searching below for a tasty player to eat. Seeing a 20ft shark swim at you in VR was an exciting part of the game!
In this project I learned how light and shadows can be used to enhance the realism of 3D scenes. The two images below showcase the importance of lighting effects in the dive shop scene of my game.
Dive shop scene: no lighting effects implemented
Dive shop scene: with lighting effects implemented
