Friendship Repair Machine
Co-op VR Game | Unreal |
2 People Team
2021 | 1-Month Project
A two-player collaboration game to rebuild the friendship cross over different time, virtual and physical space.
My Role
Designer, EngineerTools
Unreal, Blender, Arduino, UE4duino, Oculus Quest 2, Fabrication (Lasecut)Story Background
World-famous O.K company has developed a ‘friendship repair machine’ for people to fix some friendship issues. This machine is particularly useful to fix those complex and unsolved conflicts that happened in the past.
A recalled how his friendship with B broke back in 2000. Twenty years later, A still remembered how intimate he was with B and sadly how distant between them now. A then seeks help from O.K company.
After receiving the commission, O.K company officially invited both A and B to get on a journey through this magic ‘friendship repair machine.’
Player introduction
Andy:
This is the year 2021, you are 38 years old. You saw an advertisement from the O.K company and heard that they have developed a "friendship repair machine". You immediately thought about Bobbie whom you have lost contact with for many years. Bobbie was your best friend in high school. However, you accidentally did something that was sorry to Bobbie and you just did not have enough of the courage to apologize.
Now, you are standing in front of the "friendship repair machine". The machine automatically sets the time back to when you were still in high school. Communicate with Bobbie and when necessary, rotate the dial to help him in the virtual space.
Bobbie:
One day, you received a co-invitation from the O.K company and your old friend Andy. This invitation says Andy has something that he wanted to tell you for a very long time. You recalled back to high school, you two were close friends, but one day, Andy become more and more distant to you. Twenty years later, you decided to accept this invitation and find out what does Andy want to say.
A recalled how his friendship with B broke back in 2000. Twenty years later, A still remembered how intimate he was with B and sadly how distant between them now. A then seeks help from O.K company.
After receiving the commission, O.K company officially invited both A and B to get on a journey through this magic ‘friendship repair machine.’
Player introduction
Andy:
This is the year 2021, you are 38 years old. You saw an advertisement from the O.K company and heard that they have developed a "friendship repair machine". You immediately thought about Bobbie whom you have lost contact with for many years. Bobbie was your best friend in high school. However, you accidentally did something that was sorry to Bobbie and you just did not have enough of the courage to apologize.
Now, you are standing in front of the "friendship repair machine". The machine automatically sets the time back to when you were still in high school. Communicate with Bobbie and when necessary, rotate the dial to help him in the virtual space.
Bobbie:
One day, you received a co-invitation from the O.K company and your old friend Andy. This invitation says Andy has something that he wanted to tell you for a very long time. You recalled back to high school, you two were close friends, but one day, Andy become more and more distant to you. Twenty years later, you decided to accept this invitation and find out what does Andy want to say.
Concept
“Friendship Repair Machine” is a two-player collaboration game. One player plays the role of Andy, who will mainly operate the physical device in the real world. The other player will become Bobbie, entering A’s memory (in Unreal) and finding messages that A wanted to deliver to B, who always hesitated to disclose himself in person.
The virtual reality is set in A’s room. B will need A’s help (which is the physical input of the box) to explore this room. By finding essential information, B will find evidence leads to A’s ‘secret’ and eventually leave the room.
Game-wise, the person in VR is accessible to the visual information, and the person with physical objects is able to manipulate. They need to communicate and cooperate.
It’s a puzzle game similar to the escape room, but the target is not really to escape.
The virtual reality is set in A’s room. B will need A’s help (which is the physical input of the box) to explore this room. By finding essential information, B will find evidence leads to A’s ‘secret’ and eventually leave the room.
Game-wise, the person in VR is accessible to the visual information, and the person with physical objects is able to manipulate. They need to communicate and cooperate.
It’s a puzzle game similar to the escape room, but the target is not really to escape.
Fabrication
We plan to create a virtual room setting and also make a physical copy that has some details corresponding to that virtual space. When one player rotates the rotary encoder in the physical device, it's going to trigger some effects in the virtual space another playing is perceiving.
There are in total 4 inputs:
#1 - TOP - light (white/silver)
#2 - LEFT - The safety box (red)
#3 - FRONT - Paper Shredder (blue)
#4 - RIGHT - Clock (yellow)
Technical
For the communication between Unreal and Arduino, I used Ue4duino for the serial communication. We have four rotary encoders in our project which are corresponding to four objects in Unreal. I sent four values and split by corma and pass to Unreal.
In Unreal Engine, after receiving data, I mapped them to different variables like the intensity of light, rotation of clock point, safty box and the handler of paper shrendder.
For each object, when the rotation angle reaches specific angle, it will move to next step.
Visual vise, I added toon shader in post-processing to make it feel flat and comic like style.
In Unreal Engine, after receiving data, I mapped them to different variables like the intensity of light, rotation of clock point, safty box and the handler of paper shrendder.
For each object, when the rotation angle reaches specific angle, it will move to next step.
Visual vise, I added toon shader in post-processing to make it feel flat and comic like style.
Arduino
Unreal
