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Naughty Rocky is a collaboratively developed virtual reality game that was built in two weeks. The player plays the role of a naughty dog who explores the environment when its owner is not home.

Timeline
2 weeks
My Role
Platform
Oculus Quest 2
Unity
 
Producer
3D Artist
2D Artist
IXD Designer
 
Team Member
2 Programmers
2 Artists
1 Sound Designer
 
PROMPT

Build an immersive virtual world for naïve guests

The objective of this project was to develop a highly interactive and engaging experience that gives naïve guests the sense that they have lots of freedom in the choices they make.

PROBLEM

Naïve guests have limited experiences/knowledge with VR technologies

CHALLENGE

We are not allowed to give any clear instructions

How to tell players what to do and how to do without giving clear instructions in the game.

Design

1. Use VR technology to bring immersion, engagement, and excitement 

Our team chose to use Oculus Quest 2, a virtual reality platform. VR technology is an ideal platform to create an immersive environment for players. 
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2. Introduce players to a new perspective

We wanted to make a game from a different perspective, letting players be a puppy, putting the dog into a living room and allowing them to mess up with the room like a naughty puppy.
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3. Create Interesting curve to enhance "emotional value"

Considering the interest curve and the desire to surprise the guests, we decided to include a turning point in the middle of the game: the owner is returning! She sends an audio message to the dog, saying, "Did you behave well at home?" and "please don't let me find you did something wrong." We assumed the player would recognize that the time has come for them to clean up their mess!
  • goal is to impress the player during the 5 minute game
  • task is to create something out of the player's expectation
Emotional Journey Mapping
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How we got there?

Build prototype, invite playtesters, iterate again and again

  • Problem we encourtered:
When we only had two weeks to finish it, it is even more unacceptable to make any mistakes, no matter in the phase of game design, 3D modeling or game building.
We spent the first week developing models and coding. We all thought we were on the right track, but when we couldn't wait to invite naive guests to playtest our game, we discovered a huge problem that we had previously ignored.
Many of the guests we invited to playtest reported feeling lost and confused while engaged in the world. They had no idea which portions of the game they could interact with and which were purely decorative and served no use. To put it simply, people don't know how to play.
And this was extremely frustrating. So the way we moved forward as a team was to acknowledge that we'd made a mistake in designing this virtual world. And with only three days remaining, we cannot begin from scratch and rebuild the models and programs; instead, we should use what we had at the moment.
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  • Trade-off 1: Color matters
We discovered that one major reason individuals feel lost in the world is because everything is too colorful. We did research and discovered that people are drawn toward brightly colored objects. As a result, we changed the colors of the models that cannot be interacted with to make them less noticeable. And it actually fixed the problems. Players will see the most obvious items first and will have a greater likelihood of interacting with them.
Everything is too colorful
Changed the colors of models
  • Trade-off 2: Choice matters
We discovered that too many interactive options offered in the game will make it difficult for players to make a choice, especially since our game is only five minutes long. We eliminate less interesting interactions and keep those that a dog is more likely to engage in, such as digging the garbage bin, touching a cactus, and grabbing the owner's shoes.
Too many interactive options
Eliminate less interesting results
  • Trade-off 3: Technology matters
Each Quest 2 controller includes a number of buttons and triggers that can be used for a variety of purposes. However, it is extremely difficult for naïve guests who have limited or no experience with VR technology to quickly learn how to use the controller to interact and play in the virtual world. As a result, we chose to reduce the number of gestures and assign identical motion control gesture output results to different buttons.
Too many buttons/gestures
Multiple inputs, same output results

Key takeaways

Trade-off decision making

I found that there is always a trade-off when making decisions. What I need to do is prioritize every objective I wish to accomplish. For instance, I believe that allowing naïve guests to finish the game smoothly is more important than presenting them with every available piece of content and option. Thus, frustration caused by a lack of technological understanding can be eliminated. With that being said, different user goals should be established for each target user group.

Playtesting, playtesing, and playtesting

For game and experience design, playtesting (user testing) is never enough. In this round, we asked over 20 people with varying levels of gaming experience to participate in our playtest, and we are still unable to predict the behavior of the next player.

Game UI design patterns

I learned the value of good user interface design in games. Initially, I attempted to give each model with an abundance of details and colors. I now understand how to use contrast, white space, and hierarchy not just in 2D visual design, but also in 3D and game user interface design. This really helps me be a better UX designer and game designer.

Deliver

Game screenshot
Gameplay walkthrough recording

Thank You!

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