Creating the Scene

To create a prototype that represents a true image of the final deliverable, I need the dimensions of the game space to be the same as reality. Working to scale in Unity is difficult but not impossible. Last semester I used ProBuilder in an attempt to achieve this but faced many problems, and have not been able to work out a fix.. I have made contact with one of my tutors to find out if there is an easier way to manage this:

With advice from my tutor as well as further research, it has come to my knowledge that there is no simple method in unity to maintain scale between objects. As every object is imported into unity, the scale is manipulated from its original dimensions and it cannot be compared to the other objects in the scene to resize comparatively. Therefore, when creating the game space in unity, to represent the real life dimensions, I will have to be careful when moving and resizing objects, perhaps using the unity cube to measure against individual parts. The unity cube is one metre cubed.

Last semester I built a box in unity to be viewed within a VR headset and this allowed me to test with players, to find the most appropriate dimensions of the space and visualise how the game box was going to look and feel from the outside. Since then, we have scaled down the size of the box and above is the dimensions of 2.5 metres cubed.

The intention for this space is to test environment types by projecting them onto the walls of this virtual cube. Then we can put players inside these virtual environments and gather feedback on which settings are the most calming for people but also provide enough opportunities for interaction.

Dilemma

Since this semester started we have faced many problems surrounding the interactions and their required technology for them to be functional within our game box. Our decided gameplay has a key interaction of guiding a game object using touch controllers over the walls of the space and we decided that the best way to engage in this interaction would be to use touch controllers.

The gameplay for our game ‘Getaway’ can be found on this page here. This provides an in-depth explanation for how we came to develop this new space below.

The environment that we wish for this player to engage and interact within was decided to be created in 2D and the reasoning behind this design choice is documented here. This design choice was found not to be feasible for our game idea and this is because of the issue of projecting a 2 dimensional game scene within a 3D space. Unity does not have the ability to direct four cameras to four separate screens, so if we want 360 degree projection we would be required to use just one global camera inside a 3D unity build.

This change from 2D to 3D would require our team to spend too much time learning how to 3D model and work in such dimensions inside unity. Unfortunately we do not have time for this with only 9 weeks of the semester left to go. Furthermore, we are both talented 2D artists that would like to take advantage of this project to show off our talents and capabilities, creating a piece of work that we are truly proud of and passionate abut.