For my Personal Development I want to begin with research into Virtual Reality. It has always interested me to design games which help people in some aspect of their life. This is particularly linked to mental and physical health. Virtual Reality is a great way to improve confidence, experience things you never have before and simply just get moving.

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What Is It about Virtual Reality that interests me over other gaming platforms?

VR offers the ability to immerse yourself in a three-dimensional environment. My game Idea is based off players immersing themselves in an environment they are not used to, and in order to do this to its full potential, I believe Virtual Reality is the best option.

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I would like to reduce the amount someone is sat stationary in front of a screen and have players interact with their space. Key elements of Virtual Reality that would benefit my game idea include using Surround Sound to make players experience feel more realistic. Audio is an important element of an immersive environment. Players should feel as though they are experiencing it in real life.

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I have considered other platforms such as Playstation or an Ipad application, but I want to take the player away from the screen and instead play from a first person perspective. Instead of players controlling a character, I want them to take on the challenges the character would usually face. This increases physical activity by giving them the freedom to explore and interact with the things around them.

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The difference with VR is that players can become the character. This gives them a chance to connect with them on a deeper level and control/modify the environment the way they like. In comparison to using a basic PS controller, players can use their whole body to interact with an environment. Players have the freedom to interact with this physically, using their own hands and feet, not controlling somebody else's.

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Players get to visualise a place they have never been before as well as feel things they've never had the opportunity to. A great example of this is Flying. One of my favourite games on Playstation is Spiderman, and one of my favourite game elements is being able to web-swing and run up the side of buildings the way he does in the Movies. However, wouldn't this be ten times more thrilling if you felt the way he did? Put this into Virtual Reality and you'd be swinging between buildings and saving peoples lives, you are now the hero, how much better does that feel?

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Researchers at Zurich University developed a flight experience where players feel as though they are a bird exploring the skies. However their technology goes beyond a headset and headphones! They made individuals lay on a padded apparatus in a flight-like posture which made them feel as if they were flying over downtown San Francisco. The mechanism makes it feel as though you have wings, and a fan is adjusted according to the speed in which you fly. This experience recreated the perspective of a Bird flying through the sky by engaging a players whole body.

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In my own game idea, I would like to involve the aspects of real life as well as my own creation of Space. I'd like to take advantage of the numerous possibilities in VR and use them according to my chosen theme. (Space)

This can be found in: Research>Game Theme