Prototyping/Testing Space

Prototyping & Testing
The Physical Space:

Week 13 - Prototyping the space

PLAN

Evaluate purpose for physical space and our reasoning behind this
Prototype visuals in the space
Prototype demonstration of how the space will be used
Prototype and test the space - how did players feel throughout
Create final demonstration videos/mock-ups
Evaluate next steps

On this section I plan to make a series of prototypes regarding the physical space. This will involve demonstrations of visual projections, examples of how players will use the space and prototypes and testing of existing physical spaces. From this, I'll be able to finalise decisions and document our full intentions for the physical space - including how we plan to achieve them.

Pages to support these prototypes: Refining an Idea

Potential Interactions

Visual Direction

Sound Direction

WHERE DO I BEGIN?

I plan to begin by outlining the purpose of our physical space and introducing why we chose to use a space rather than another platform. Understanding the purpose of the space will allow me to prototype with our main goals in mind and evaluate the effectiveness of it. I also plan to test with my peers to gather insight to what our strengths and weaknesses are regarding our set-up, visuals and sound etc.

PROTOTYPING THE PHYSICAL SPACE

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE PHYSICAL IMMERSIVE SPACE?

Kiera and I combined our themes together at the start of Phase Three, identified our Project Goals and established our shared passion for Games for Change. Using this, we were able to generate ideas for a physical immersive space which players would be able to visit in order to regulate their emotions and reduce sensations of anxiety and stress. After a thorough amount of research into immersion and player engagement, we understood that the use of physical spaces can enhance these game components and essentially transport players to 'another world/dimension' - similar to Virtual and Mixed Reality environments. The purpose of our physical space is to take advantage of these immersive features and provide players with a method of escape, through engaging visuals and sound as well as subtle playful interactions.

During Phase Three, we also identified our Target Audience being students in college/university around the ages 16-21. We applied both our own knowledge and personal experiences to our user research and came to the conclusion that this demographic would benefit the most from our essential experience and project goals. We then thought about the possibility of a gameplay intervention which would be placed on school/college and university campuses to assist regulation in students who struggle with the overload of responsibility and other mental health issues. (Anxiety, overwhelm, stress, panic) This space on campus will be both highly accessible and designed to be as inclusive as we can make it.

THE GAME IDEA

The game idea involves players visiting this physical space during times of need. Once players have entered the space they will be welcomed by a stunning 360 degree visual display and soothing music. Players have the freedom to observe their surroundings and interact with its environmental features - yet to be discovered. Player input could be either motion sensors, touch controllers or PS5 controller which can be linked to the space and provide players with haptics at the same time, to stimulate realistic interactions. Players will have complete control over their space and be able to engage with their senses at the same time - this relates to our research into Regulation, Sensory Rooms and grounding techniques. Throughout gameplay, visuals and sound will be tailored to evoke feelings of comfort and relaxation in players to ensure they remain calm throughout and have time to reflect upon challenging thoughts and feelings.

ESSENTIAL EXPERIENCE & REASONING FOR SPACE

Our Essential Experience outlined the importance for players to feel immersed and as engaged as possible. This allows players to focus on the moment and practice 'mindfulness'. Using the features of a physical space will allow us to capture the attention of players and achieve full immersion at the same time. A physical space provides them with 360 degree captivating visuals and a surround sound system which blend to create a mesmerising immersive gameplay experience.

We could have considered other platforms too, such as Virtual Reality - which we did! But we spent time thinking about what would be most effective for players. During times of desperate need, putting on a bulky VR headset is not the most convenient option, but being able to walk into a 'quiet room/zone' certainly is. The space doesn't require any additional set up or hardware which means usability for players is almost a breeze! When we consider interactions and method of input, we aim to identify the simplest and the most accessible. During my Immersive technology research in Phase Three, I already disregarded the option for motion trackers as this results in additional set up and preparation which players won't want to do. However, the use of touch controllers would allow for players to translate their physical movement into the virtual world which encourages physical activity and increases player engagement. These are the things we will spend a few weeks thinking about at the start of next Semester.

PROTOTYPING

My plan for these series of prototypes will involve testing different visual displays in an immersive space/box, as well as testing peoples reactions to an immersive environment. This will allow me to evaluate the overall success of our experience and identify whether or not we have used visuals and sound in the correct way - to encourage physical and emotional regulation. I intend to start simple and later on incorporate our users into testing where I'd like to form a video demonstration of gameplay from start to finish. I will also be producing a simple prototype for our supporting mobile application and test this amongst users which can be found on the following page.

IMMERSIVE PHYSICAL SPACE - Experience Map

RE-CAP OF GAMEPLAY

To familiarise myself with each stage of the game, I will be referring to my experience map for the immersive space and use this to record whether or not the outcome of my prototypes are successful.

MAIN STAGES

Phase 1 - Players access the physical space at school/college or on campus.

Phase 2 - Players enter the physical space and observe surroundings. Engage with visual display and listen to soothing music.

Phase 3 - Players have the ability to interact with their surroundings through physical input methods.

Phase 4 - Players leave the experience feeling settled, calm and satisfied. They will then have the opportunity to channel these emotions within their very own reflective mobile game which will encourage task management, reflection and organisation.

On page 75 of my Sketchbook, I have drawn a story-board for the gameplay experience.

I will refer back to my story-boards and experience maps during the prototype and testing process.

WHAT DO I NEED TO PROTOTYPE?

Examples of visual displays and projection mapping (360 degrees)
Example of visuals used to relax and calm players (our chosen colour theme etc)
Demo of motion and slow movement
Examples of sound/music and atmospheric audio - use of surround sound system
Demonstration of use of physical space
Prototype space and evaluate effectiveness of experience through testing.
Experience in 6m Cylinder

PROTOTYPES - PLAYER EXPERIENCE DEMONSTRATION

PROTOTYPE 1

360 Degree Visual Demo

PURPOSE FOR PROTOTYPE

The purpose for this first prototype is to demonstrate what the 360 degree display might appear like to players. I plan to show how players will initially approach the space and then enter, where they will be welcomed by 360 degree visuals of a tranquil environment. This will be a small mock-up of what players should see when they first enter.

PROCESS - HOW DID I DO IT?

Minecraft!

I used the game 'Minecraft' to draft a quick build of the physical space in the form of a box. I took recordings of my screen to show how players first enter the space and then demonsrrate their view of a beautiful 360 degree environment.

VIEW FROM PLAYER PERSPECTIVE

THE BOX - Mock-up

360 Degree Visual Demo

PLAYERS VIEW AS THEY FIRST APPROACH THE SPACE

PLAYERS VIEW IN THE BOX AS THEY OBSERVE THEIR SURROUNDINGS

INTENTIONS

My intentions for this demo was to show how players would approach the space and then be able to observe their environment. This gives readers insight to what players will see once they have entered the space.

OUTCOME

I am pleased with the outcome of this demo because it's quite a realistic demonstration of what players will be presented with once they are in there. I made sure to take full advantage of the sunset in Minecraft to suggest that the environment displayed will be calming, relaxing and as peaceful as this!

NEXT STEPS

Next steps for this will be to build our own small prototype box. Similar to how we did in Phase Three, I can use the box and my projector to project soothing visuals and sound in the space, and show the reaction of players before and after. I plan to do this using a lego man and a stop-motion animation.

PURPOSE FOR PROTOTYPE

The purpose for this prototype is to demonstrate the player experience including projections of visuals and sound. I plan to set up a mini scene to capture what players will see within the space and the music they might hear. I would then like to add annotations for player feelings before and after the experience to showcase how the game will be tailored to have a positive impact. From here, we can then think about testing other forms of visuals in a larger space and a real User!

This prototype was made on the basis of potentially constructing our own space. Prototypes with 'The 6m Cylinder' will follow.

PURPOSE FOR PROTOTYPE

PROCESS - HOW DID I DO IT?

Using the box Kiera and I built in Phase Three, I sourced a 'relaxing motion video' from Youtube and projected it into the space. I also played an example of soothing music in the background to represent what players will hear while they are inside. Lastly, I used a Lego figure to demonstrate the players experience and created a stop-motion animation to do this.

INTENTIONS

My intentions for this was to show how projection mapping will work around the space to achieve full immersion. I also used a sample of soothing music to represent what players will hear and to demonstrate the effect of Surround Sound. I did this to capture the main player experience, by focusing on how they felt before and after the experience, showing the affect our physical space in terms of stress-relief and helping students remain calm and relxaed.

THE BOX - Mock-up

360 Degree Visuals, Surround Sound and Player Experience

IMAGE SHOWS PROJECTION MAPPING IN SPACE

GAMEPLAY LOOP

Players enter the space and have the opportunity to observe, engage and interact with their surroundings. They are rewarded with immersive gameplay and visual/sound design, resulting in physical and emotional regulation. Players have the opportunity to listen to soothing piano music and interact with a beautiful 360 visual display/environment.

OUTCOME

The outcome of this prototype shows how players begin the experience feeling stressed and overwhelmed, and resort to the quiet space to reduce these feelings. During the experience you can see that players engage with their surroundings and listen to music, resulting in feelings of calm and relaxation post-experience. This demo is a good example of the overall player experience, without the need for detail or depth.

IMPROVEMENTS & NEXT STEPS

Improvements I can make includes thinking about what we project in the space - using my Visuals Research and Direction I can begin to think about the visual display and show exactly how we intend for visuals and sound to make players feel at ease.

Next steps will involve prototyping these different visual displays, considering factors I covered during my research such as colour, motion, rhythm and shape. As well as show how we intend for Projection Mapping to work.

EVALUATION

These prototypes have helped me to demonstrate the player experience much clearer and showcase our vision for how the overall gameplay will work. I think these mock-ups do a great job at visually explaining what players will experience and how it will effect them. This supports our Project Goals and overall aims for the project! I am excited to next experiment with visuals and projection mapping to further explain what players might see in this physical space.

PROTOTYPES - VISUALS AND PROJECTION MAPPING

PROTOTYPES

Visual Display and Projection Mapping

PURPOSE FOR PROTOTYPE

The purpose for these next few prototypes will be to demonstrate the use of Projection Mapping in our own built space. We have considered the construction of our own box using sustainable materials and resources, which will require our own set-up of projectors and surround sound systems. I aim for this next prototype to show how we will project visuals around a 360 degree space of our own. Additionally we aim to test different visual displays and forms with our student tester, Charlie. We established our 3 possible art styles for the space and by doing this, we can have a clearer idea of what they might look like projected in a large space.

PROCESS - HOW DID I DO IT?

Our own box

To begin, Kiera and I constructed a physical box out of paper, leaving one wall empty to allow us to project our visuals into it. I set up my own projector to display a series of visual examples into our paper box. This allowed us to capture the feel of the experience and gather feedback regarding this too. I sourced examples on Youtube, similar to those we have discovered in our Visual Direction and set our tester down in front of the box to make them feel as involved as possible.

VISUAL DISPLAY

Our own box

We considered the different elements of our display that would best represent our aims. I discovered in my Visuals Research that the colours blue, green and purple shades are most calming as well as natural shapes and environments, so these are the things we used for prototype and testing purposes.

AIMS

For prototypes

Our aims for these prototypes were to simply demonstrate our options for visual displays and do this in a physical space of our own. We are aware of the capabilities of 'The 6m Cylinder' but wanted to test the feasibility of this by ourselves in our own construction. We aimed to stick to our 3 art styles and provide our tester with insight to what the final outcome might be like.

A SERIES OF PROTOTYPES

Experimenting with Motion/Abstract Liquid

OUR FIRST ART STYLE

Kiera and I began by displaying examples for Motion visuals and Abstract Liquid. I identified these kind of videos to be used for meditation and relaxation purposes for example while studying or simply just wanting to wind-down. I wanted to evaluate how these would appear in the space and the kind of feel that they would create. Examples below show a range of colours, movement and lighting which we experimented with to visualise what our final outcome could possibly look like.

EXPERIMENTATION WITH ABSTRACT MOVEMENT/VISUALS

SLOW MOTION ABSTRACT LIQUID AND SOOTHING SOUND

COMBINATION OF BLUES, PINKS AND PURPLES WITH SOOTHING PIANO SOUND

VIBRANT COLOURS AND PIANO MUSIC

COLOURFUL LIGHT DISPLAY

SLOW MOTION JELLY FISH

COMBINATION OF COLOURS

SLOW MOTION FIRE VISUAL

OUTCOME

By doing this we were able to use different examples of motion and abstract visuals in a 360 environment. This consisted of different speeds of movement, colour palette and content. Most of these displays had soft, gentle movement which are aimed to relax and settle the body and mind. We experimented with more natural content such as moving Jelly fish and crackling fire - which I especially liked. It's clear that the most important aspect of these visuals are the speed and rhythm of movement, because Kiera and I both agreed that the slow fluid movements made us feel most calm. These experiments overall allowed us to see what these visuals might look like in a 360 degree space and we both agreed we loved the effect of this.

WHAT WENT WELL?

The slow movement allowed our tester, Kiera and I to wind-down and observe for the few minutes they were displayed. We all agreed that we found the displays of colour most interesting as we sat fascinated by the combinations of different colours. We also established that soft piano music in the background was extremely impactful as it made us feel transfixed, similar to hypnosis! I especially liked the effect of light in the space - we had turned all the lights off in the room so the only light source was from the visual display. I loved how the content kept transforming, causing there to be more or less light at certain points. I also liked how its projection travelled across the walls of the space which encouraged us to observe the surroundings and focus on different parts of the room.

WHAT DIDN'T GO WELL?

Charlie, Kiera and I agreed that despite the content of these visuals, it came to a point where we would lose focus and eventually get bored. I think this is because there isn't much to it other than slow movement and soothing sound. As time progressed, there wasn't much to engage with as it became predictable and nothing more to expect. I think this is also down to the lack of interaction, but this is something we plan to focus on in Semester 2.

EVALUATION OF PROTOTYPES & NEXT STEPS

HOW DID WE FEEL?

The abstract visuals and fluidity were certainly engaging and immersive for some amount of time. We specifically enjoyed the different colours and slow movement which allowed us to take time to sit back and observe however it did eventually become too repetitive. However, during the main experience I can agree that these videos made me feel at ease and allowed me to focus on the moment rather than thinking of anything else that might have been on my mind. These visuals definitely have the ability to transport your mind and body somewhere else, but at the same time keep you grounded.

HOW SUCCESSFUL/EFFECTIVE WAS THIS ART STYLE?

Like I mentioned before, these visuals were effective for a specific amount of time until we had nothing more to focus on and weren't provided with anything new. If we were to adapt the experience by incorporating interactions into the space, I think this could enhance and resolve this issue. Although, as I established within my Visual Direction section, there is not much to interact with other than the ability to transform or adjust visuals on screen, which might become a little repetitive too. The most effective element of these visuals was its transformation on screen, I enjoyed how the visual spread out amongst the 3 walls which encouraged us to pay attention to our surroundings rather than standing statiionary or looking in one direction.

IMPROVEMENTS AND NEXT STEPS

A bigger space - I'd say to really achieve the most from this experience and from this art style it will be necessary to test in a larger environment. This way we can really experiment with our users in the position of the player in a full immersive environment. This will require us to prototype with 'The 6m Cylinder' because this is one of our alternative options for the space, which we were planning to do anyway. This would encourage players to walk around and observe/interact more, if the visuals transform and move right in front of them. I can assume that we would feel even more engaged and transfixed by these visuals, but still without interaction I believe it will still become a little uninteresting. Kiera also plans to test in her own VR prototype. Next steps for now is to evaluate the effectiveness of our other art styles!

PROTOTYPE

Experimenting with illustrated environments

OUR SECOND ART STYLE

Our second chosen art style is a more hand-drawn, illustrated approach. This choice was inspired by Alexander Perrins interactive illustrations and game 'Short Trip'. We admired the detail he ahd put into these environments and wanted to explore ways we could project this into our space. Being a 2D artist myself, I'd love to incorporate this style into my own game, as it's what I am most good at and I'd love to showcase this. Compared to the previous art style, this is a style we are both more comfortable working in, but motion visuals would require training for the both of us. I wanted to see how this might appear in a larger environment as I have never seen this done before, but something we'd have to consider involves the quality of our drawings after scanning. I'd hate to spend time on detailed environments and assets and then come to display them, find that the resolution is of a bad quality. This is why with this art style we'd have to do a lot of experimenting and testing with a projector in a larger space! Overall, I think it's a fun and unique art style that I enjoy the look of and can appreciate its intricate details.

EXPERIMENTATION WITH ILLUSTRATED VISUAL

SCREEN CAPTURE OF ALEXANDER PERRIN'S GAME 'SHORT TRIP'

Visuals projected onto 3 walls we could see
Atmospheric/ambient audio of birds, nature, tram travelling and tram bell.
Made with pencil and graphite
Certainly our favourite out of the three! But we spoke to Charlie to gather an unbiased opinion

OUTCOME

The outcome of this experiment was honestly not what I imagined! Compared to the last style I thought I'd find this quite boring and underwhelming but I'd like to say I was wrong. In comparison to abstract visuals, this style doesn't consist of colour or any dramatic effects, but what I loved most was its simplicity. The in-game interactions made it a much more immersive and engaging experience, because the player was in control of what was displayed, rather than waiting with high expectations. Charlie, Kiera and I discussed that we loved its attention to detail and intricate animations. I can certainly say this was more interesting than the last, because there was more to it and more skill to appreciate. I liked how the projection surrounded viewers and it made me think about how players could interact the environment by constantly walking, observing and referring to different parts of the environment. This would encourage physical activity and interaction in the space, especially if the player is given agency over the environment. Maybe we should think about how players can interact with all 4 walls of the space, maybe each wall has a different element of interaction to it?

WHAT WENT WELL?

The style of art impressed us all and we admired its attention to detail. We all agreed that we were much more appreciative of this style compared to the last and this helped keep us engaged throughout. I can assume that the reason for this was the ever-changing environment, similar to 2D parallax scrollers, players are able to traverse the environment and discover new parts as they progressed. This meant we were constantly engrossed and didn't get bored. Additionally, the accompanying atmospheric audio tied the experience together. The sound of the tram as it travelled and occasional 'honk' of the horn kept us on our toes and gave it a little bit of depth. It was nice to hear and I began to imagine myself present in an empty, peaceful setting - I think the lack of audio helped with this.

WHAT DIDN'T GO WELL?

Colour! Compared to our other art style alternatives, the only thing this style lacks is colour and a little depth. Personally, I liked its simplistic colour palette (graphite/pencil) but according to our tester Charlie, he found it quite 'bland'. As well as this, my research shows that colour plays an important part of evoking particular emotions of calm and relaxation which is how we established our colour palette to be in shades of blues, greens and purples - maybe this is something we can think about implementing into it? But I feel this might take away the beauty of the detailed illustration.

EVALUATION OF PROTOTYPE & NEXT STEPS

HOW DID WE FEEL?

Throughout the experience, I felt relaxed, calm and engaged. I was especially interested in the illustrated art style which may have been the reason for how much I enjoyed it! However, I discussed with Charlie after who comes from an engineering background and doesn't have as much appreciation for art like this and he agreed that he was impressed by it, but it also made him feel at peace. This was because there were different elements to look at, and he liked how he could watch the tram travel into the depths of the environment where he'd come across different things - like trees, passengers and stations etc. This helped engage our focus and allowed us to sit happily and observe gameplay. Although, it definitely would've been better if we were able to interact with it ourselves.

HOW SUCCESSFUL/EFFECTIVE WAS THIS ART STYLE?

It was engaging, relaxing and impressive! But, it did lack a sense of immersion and I think this was due to the lack of interaction and possibly no colour too. I would love to see a style like this projected around a larger space in which we can stand in and evaluate for ourselves, in the position of the player. I think it comes down to our feelings in the moment and measuring this against how we felt prior.

IMPROVEMENTS AND NEXT STEPS

Similar to the previous style, I intend to test this in 'The 6m Cylinder'. This will give us a larger area to work with and this way we can evaluate its effectiveness in terms of engagement and immersion. Next steps for us in Semester Two would be to think about what exactly the environment will be and how players will interact with it because I know that interactions will fully enhance the space completely. It'll transform it from just observation to gameplay.

PROTOTYPE

Experimenting with natural environments

OUR FINAL VISUAL DISPLAY

As discovered in my Surveys, I established the importance of natural environments in terms of grounding, mindfulness and 'bringing us back to the natural world'. This is extremely beneficial for emotional regulation to encourage us to focus on the present moment instead of allowing our thoughts to take us elsewhere. Most people provided examples for natural environments in response to 'how do you picture your safe space?' so I thought it would be a good idea to experiment with this. These natural environments also come with their own unique ambient audio and effects, which can help to engage players and stimulate realistic environments. This helps to convince players they are in an alternative space.

Within these prototypes, we tested with three different natural environments. Each consisted of different sounds and settings which was interesting to see projected into a 360 degree space, as you can see down below. We will have to consider how exactly we will display these environments, whether thats in our own art style our our own videography and sounds from our chosen environment/setting.

EXPERIMENTATION WITH NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS

BEACH ENVIRONMENT - CRASHING WAVES

MOUNTAIN-SCAPE/RIVER - RIVER/WATER, NATURE SOUNDS

INDOORS WINDOW/RAINFALL - RAINFALL AUDIO

Ambient sound and atmospheric audio
Helps players become more grounded
Brings players back to 'the natural world'
Focus on present moment
Stimulate realistic environments through sound
Would work nicely accompanied by soft piano music

OUTCOME

I thoroughly enjoyed this experience. I enjoyed the natural feel, much more than the abstract style, it felt more realistic and I felt more comfortable in this space. I am glad we prototyped these environments because it demonstrates our idea for atmospheric audio and the effect this has on players. Even just watching the preview back, I enjoy listening to the sound and seeing it visually in front of me made it 10 times better. If we were to project these visuals in a 360 degree space I think it would be much more effective and impactful. This way the environment would surround players completely and they'd be able to observe their natural environment - this is a technique of regulation, but we are able to bring the environment to them, on school grounds! These environments made me feel calm and secure, I especially liked the beach environment because I was able to focus on the rhythm of the waves which made my body settled just as much as my mind. After speaking to Charlie, he said these environments were quite boring in comparison to the previous, and I think this is due to the lack of interaction or movement in the space as these were all still.

WHAT WENT WELL?

It felt refreshing and certainly made me feel like I was present in an open space. This helped me feel more free although we were looking into a small sized paper box! The audio on top of this was extremely beneficial, it brought the space to life and made up for the lack of interaction and movement in the setting. Relating this back to my research again, natural environments are good for grounding and becoming self-aware through nature, so this is something to keep in mind when we make final decisions.

WHAT DIDN'T GO WELL?

I was thinking about how players might interact in this space and wondered if it's a little limited. We will be able to project an environment like this using projection mapping however, in order for it to be interactive we will have to provide a 360 visual of this environment and implement interactions all around it. If the environment is still, there is only so much we can do with this, but if the environment were to be moving, it might cause motion sickness and latency in players! This, we do not want to do.

EVALUATION OF PROTOTYPE & NEXT STEPS

HOW DID WE FEEL? / HOW SUCCESSFUL WAS THIS?

Overall I was happy with the outcome of this prototype. I felt at peace and sat happily in front of the display. Kiera and Charlie both agreed that these environments were preferred in comparison to the abstract display, as it made them feel more at home and more 'in the moment'. These environments also related more to the idea of a safe space as I identified from my survey results. From this I can assume it would make the majority of players feel much more comfortable and settled.

IMPROVEMENTS AND NEXT STEPS

For our next steps, we aim to experiment more in 'The 6m Cylinder'. We can only create a small prototyped box at this stage due to resources and time, so visiting the cylinder will allows us to bring our ideas to life. I intend to create a few more experience mock-up videos to demonstrate how gameplay will work in a much larger, immersive environment. We can test in the Cylinder the use of the projection mapping system as well as its 5.1 Surround Sound which will give us a more realistic idea of our projects outcome. During this process, I also remembered the 'quiet room' we have located on campus and thought I'd take my own projector in there to experiment first.

PROTOTYPE & TESTING - PROJECTION MAPPING IN THE QUIET ROOM

PROTOTYPE & TEST IN THE QUIET ROOM

Projection Mapping and Experimenting in the Quiet Room

PURPOSE FOR PROTOTYPE & TEST

The purpose for this test was to evaluate the effectiveness of a quiet room on campus. In addition to this, it allowed us to experiment with the use of an existing room on campus, used for a similar purpose. It allowed us to think about how we can transform a small empty room into a room of immersion and playful gameplay. As we haven't yet discovered the interactions for this space, we were able to test with projection mapping, captivating visuals and soothing music in a small room, relying on the response of our tester.

QUIET ROOM

What is the Quiet Room?

The Quiet Room is a room on campus, specifically located within the East Building of Winchester School of Art. I have attached an image below of the Map of WSA, the Quiet Room is labelled number 3. This room is essentially for people to take time out, take a breather or sometimes used for prayer. It's a small sized room located in a narrow corridor, however, it does the job.

CAMPUS MAP - Winchester School of Art

PROCESS - HOW DID I DO IT?

Kiera and I set up my projector, visuals and soothing music in the quiet Space on campus. As we did this, I also made a small video documentary to capture the essence of our experience - which I'll explain below. We took our tester to the space and I asked him to reflect upon his feelings before, during and after the experience, to gather feedback and use this to improve and refine our idea next Semester.

AIMS

From Prototype

My aim from this prototype is to showcase the main player experience as well as evaluate the effectiveness of it. This will involve evaluating the responses from our tester and thinking about what went well vs what didn't. We can use this to improve our design and development in Semester 2.

We aim to demonstrate how our idea can be used by students in times of need, as a way to relieve stress and escape from what might be causing you overwhelm or sensations of anxiety. The room on campus will be transformed into an immersive space for playful gameplay but also a highly accessible intervention.

THE QUIET SPACE - Prototype, Test & Mini Documentary

INTENTIONS

I put together this short documentary/film to capture the effectiveness of our experience. We aim to put a lot of effort into the design and development of our game to ensure it can benefit players and impact them in a positive way. This film does as much as it can to showcase the change in emotion within the player before and after the experience - which is the most important aspect of our design. With the support from a little acting, these clips are a realistic representation of our tester in the immersive space and I later asked him to reflect upon his experience.

MAIN POINTS OF THE EXPERIENCE

Players begin feeling overwhelmed by their workload or other factors that might be causing them similar sensations, to the point where they need to remove themselves from the room and take a breather elsewhere. Students familiar with the room will be able to approach it effortlessly, but those without prior knowledge should be provided with support. It might be necessary to advertise the room around campus to promote it and make people aware it's there. (As well as advertising through emails etc).

The player approaches the quiet room and uses the 'occupied' setting to make people aware the space is taken. The player can essentially take a seat on a chair, the floor or whatever makes them comfortable. Projections will begin playing which should consist of soothing movement and accompanying surround sound. You can see in the video (ever so slightly) our player is fixated on the visual display and makes little to no movement - this is good! The music provided should be soft and gentle piano music, as established within reasoning in my Sound Direction page. At this point, the combination of these components should relax and calm players, resulting in both physical and emotional regulation. (Reduced heart rate, steady breathing and mind is now at ease. As the player completes their experience, they return back to class or wherever they were previously, to channel their emotions into their supporting mobile application. My prototype demonstrations for this can be found here: Prototyping/Testing for App.

WHAT WENT WELL?

We were able to successfully project visuals around the quiet room however, they were limited to 2 walls. This is because of the size of the room and the inability to project any bigger. To overcome this we'd have to integrate 4 projectors (1 for each wall) and customise the dimensions of the display ourselves using specific software. However, we were able to successfully create a highly accessible immersive safe space on our own campus, ready for students to use. We also were able to play music in the background through a speaker which elevated the experience that bit more. The room was lit by the projections which made it feel comfortable, almost similar to the comfort of a cinema.

WHAT DIDN'T GO WELL? / NEXT STEPS

The size of the projections which I have previously clarified. In addition to this, it was a little awkward having to stand in the room at the same time as our tester simply for set-up and filming purposes. This took the element of privacy away from it, but still had our desired effect nonetheless. To really capture the essence of our experience, our next steps will be to use a physical space available to us e.g. The 6m Cylinder. This is because we can take advantage of its Surround Sound system and 360 degree visual display, which is what we intended for our experience to be like. This'll allow us to capture a more realistic demo of what our Project Proposal entails. Next step - the test results.

TEST RESPONSES

The Quiet Room

AIMS AND PURPOSE FOR TEST

The purpose of this test is to think about the responses we get from our experience. I'd like to evaluate the comparison between how our tester felt before, during and after the experience to really measure its effectiveness. As well as this, I'd like to allow for comments for improvements and suggestions to better the experience.

On page 72 of my Sketchbook, I have documented the testers responses in the form of sticky notes

QUESTIONS I ASKED TESTER:

How do you feel before the experience?
How do you feel now? (During)
How do you feel after?
What did you like most about it?
How can we improve?

The responses from these questions will allow me to compare and establish whether or not our experience had our desired effect.

RE-CAP: WHAT DO WE WANT FROM THE EXPERIENCE?

Players to feel calm and relaxed
Put players mind at ease
Provide them with a space to escape and wind-down
Reduce physical and emotional symptoms of anxiety and stress
Support mental health

EVALUATION OF RESPONSES

How do you feel? (Before)

The tester expressed to feel tired, stressed and have a busy mind prior to the experience. This is demonstrated through the testers body language, gestures and facial expression recorded in the short documentary.

How do you feel? (During)

During the experience, the tester noted down that the experience was tranquil and he felt safe and comfortable. This tester had no prior knowledge to our intentions for the project, so this response was relieving to see! Although we had high hopes that it would perform the way we intended.

How do you feel? (After)

After the experience, our tester noted down that they still felt tired, but this time felt calm and satisfied! This was the perfect response as we aim to satisfy players and keep their mind at ease. It's not necessarily about giving them energy or adrenaline, it's more about making players feel settled and from this response I can gather that we did this successfully. I can evaluate that our use of soothing visual displays and soft piano music worked in this sense.

What did you like most?

I struggled to read his handwriting on this sticky note, but what I can gather is he enjoyed sitting in a dark room with his only light source being the projected image. I spoke to him after and he liked the 'cinema' feel to this. This is important because it requires player focus and catches their full attention without any other surrounding distractions. I also believe the lack of light is what made the room feel comfortable and cosy. (I can say this because I was in there too!)

How can we improve on the design of this experience?

The tester suggested two things: better sound quality and better coverage of the displayed visuals. If we were to receive any form of negative comment or feedback, this is what I hoped it would be. I can evaluate from the players responses that they enjoyed the overall experience and effect of a visual display but something we must work on is the quality of both sound and visual. In this moment, there were a few drawbacks regarding how much we could project and the sound that we could produce (without distracting those in lectures around us) but to really capture and showcase our initial intentions, we can take a visit to 'The 6m Cylinder' and test with its visual display, sound and other interactive elements.

NEXT STEPS AND REFLECTION SO FAR

As a result of the prototypes and tests we have done so far, it's evident to me that we need to take our ides to 'The 6m Cylinder' and experiment with our surroundings. This will give us a more realistic outcome of our experience and gather feedback from our tester while doing so. I think the transformation of the quiet space could have been effective although it doesn't provide players with much space for interactions or physical movement. (This can differ between schools and campuses) It will be good to experiment with a much bigger space, with immersive features already integrated, to avoid the need for extra set-up or understanding for external hardware/software. Next I plan to book a visit to the cylinder in Digital Humanities on Avenue Campus and hopefully be able to experiment with a few of its features!

PROTOTYPE & TESTING - THE FEATURES OF 'THE 6M CYLINDER'

17.01.22

VISITING AND EXPERIMENTING WITH THE SPACE

PURPOSE FOR VISIT

I have booked a session for the space through the share-point link provided the last time we visited. Kiera and I plan to take a tester to the space to observe its surroundings and simply gather their opinions on it. We also intend to experiment with 360 degree visuals and the surround sound system to capture what our experience is really meant to be like. My previous prototypes did a good job demonstrating visually what the experience is meant to be like for players, but I'd like to showcase its main game concepts through a series of clips and images taken from this visit.

RE-CAP: What is 'The 6m Cylinder'?

During Phase Three, Kiera and I were exploring our options for immersive technology and physical spaces. Conveniently enough, our course leader Adam Procter introduced us to the Digital Humanities Department located on Avenue Campus in Southampton. They presented us with a range of different technologies and devices, but this one in particular stood out the most.

The 6m Cylinder is an immersive 360 degree space used for collaborative learning, education, exhibits and much more - developed by 'Igloo Vision'. The space consists of a 360 degree visual screen and a 5.1 Surround Sound system. It also has the ability to become interactive - which I will go into more here: The Physical Space. I researched a lot into the possibilities of the space as well as its drawbacks. One of its limitations was its size, as its often used for large groups and collaborative work which might take away the personal feel to our experience. However, its benefits were in relation to immersion and engagement which achieve both our project goals and essential experience. More research into this space and other options for technology can be found here: Technology research.

In summary, we identified this space as a potential option for our project to take place and we were lucky enough to have been given the details of the humanities department to book a visit for whenever we required. Today is that day!

During this visit, we were also lucky enough to speak with James Baker who was able to help up with set-up to teach us how to control it ourselves. I will be documenting my understanding of this in The Physical Space.

MAP OF AVENUE CAMPUS

(Building 65 - Digital Humanities and the Cylinder are located here)

PROTOTYPING

The 360 degree display

PURPOSE FOR PROTOTYPE / DEMOS

The purpose for the next series of prototypes is to gather a better understanding of this space and its features. We can consider how they might be of use to us and how we will implement this into our Project Proposal. I plan to document this on a separate page which can be found here: The Physical Space. Other than this, it will be good to visit the space again and explore ways we can use it. This time we will have complete control over whats displayed and are able to bring our tester with us, to gather an unbiased opinion from a student around the same demographic as our target audience.

EXPERIMENTING WITH DISPLAY

We experimented with different visuals, mostly the ones that the software had already downloaded to avoid having to input our own which required a lot of searching and time for good quality sources.

RED BLOOD CELLS - Similar to our Biomedical Imaging findings.

LOW POLY SPACE - A funky, colourful introduction for 'Igloo Vision'.

ASTEROIDS - Reminded me of my Year 2 project, asteroids were flying towards players.

OUTCOME

Doing this gave us and our user insight into how the final outcome might appear. It was much better to witness examples of captivating visuals around a 360 degree space which was built to achieve immersion and enhance engagement. It gave us a sense of what our final project will be like and the Cylinder is almost the perfect piece of technology to do this. We were able to take our tester in there and discuss the visuals around the space, talking about what worked and what didn't which I'll attach below. The Cylinder is connected to a computer which has all the information we needed on it, as well as the software needed to display our chosen visuals. This was exceptionally convenient and easy to use which we can take into account for our proposal, we want set-up to be simple and not require additional knowledge or hardware/software.

360 DEGREE VISUAL

Our choice of visuals for the display were great examples of how effective the panoramic/warped view was. The display surrounded us in the space and although the space was quite big (6m wide) it made it feel much smaller, making it feel cosy and more personal. The first visual we tested was a slow moving microscopic video of Red Blood Cells, which was similar to the images we discovered from our Biomedical Imaging exhibition visit. This display travelled around the space in one motion which in my opinion, made me feel a little dizzy. It was good to sample this kind of motion in the space because we now know what not to do, to avoid players feeling nauseous or unwell. I liked the detail of the image although, I believe we would struggle to implement interactions into this kind of thing. I also experimented with 'Igloo Vision's' intro animation, it was cool to see the transformation of colour and shape which I found myself focused on. We also displayed 'flying asteroids'. It reminded me of my particle system I made last year on Blender, as the asteroids were travelling towards players and would often break apart. This was satisfying and I know our tester enjoyed this too.

WHAT WENT WELL?

It was convenient to be able to test different visuals in the space and get a feel for the environment and tone that we aim to create. The use of the 360 degree screen helped immensely with immersion and was ten times more effective than our quiet room prototype or our small paper prototypes. It will be a great idea to include these demonstration videos in our Project Proposal because they illustrate clearly exactly what we aim to achieve by the end of Semester 2 - minus the interactions and gameplay mechanics. Our tester was pleased with the outcome of the space and was interested in how we would integrate gameplay into it, which I am keen to get on with as soon as we can.

WHAT DIDN'T GO WELL? / NEXT STEPS

At the time of use, James Baker spoke to us and informed us that one of the projectors wasn't working. This is something we must overcome in preparation for the arcade event in the Summer. However, the size of this space is also much bigger than intended, which means we may struggle with transportation and set-up. We previously discussed with our course-leader the opportunity to record gameplay in the form of a short film, and display this at the event instead - But ideally, we'd like to have a physical game to play instead.

PROTOTYPE & TEST

The 360 degree display with tester

PURPOSE FOR PROTOTYPE & TEST

The purpose for this was to demonstrate the player experience in the Cylinder, using our target audience. I planned to discuss the effect of the visual display with both Kiera and our tester, and also gather a few clips of our user arriving at the space and approaching it. This can be used to illustrate how it'll work and what students will be provided with once they visit the space on campus.

AIM

To demonstrate how players will approach the space and how it can be used.

EXPERIMENTATION

We experimented with both immersive videos and still images. But can clarify that videography is definitely best - especially if we were to incorporate elements of interaction into it, at different stages.

Images show examples of virtual displays and our tester observing his surroundings:

We allowed our tester to get comfortable and he chose to take a seat in the centre of the space:

Introduction to space:

This clip demonstrates the player entering the 6m Cylinder. It is currently located in the Digital Humanities department, but if we were to potentially construct our own space, we would make it portable and accessible on all schools/campuses.

Sample of music and visual:

This clip samples a piece of soothing piano music over the players experience (we made the decision for this within my Visual Direction page) - unfortunately the surround sound system was not working on this day so we used a speaker instead. Overall, the feel of the music on top of the slow visuals gave it the calming, tranquil feel that we were going for. Our tester was also impressed by the outer space image!

Transition between two environments:

We experimented with another space visual, this time with some movement but no sound. I wasn't able to film all of this as my phone at the end started to interfere with the display! Our user was mesmerised by this and liked how the visual changed as his observed different parts of the envrionment.

EXPERIMENTATION WITH ILLUSTRATED STYLE

The last thing we wanted to do in the space was project hand-drawn illustrations, during our previous prototypes we realised that measuring the effectiveness of our smaller paper prototypes wouldn't be as accurate as a surrounding 360 environment. Because of this, we thought it would be a good idea to test in the physical space we could potentially be using for our final outcome/deliverable. We managed to download an image of Alexander Perrin's 'Short Trip' environment and place it in the space but the quality/resolution of this was terrible. Something to consider before scanning is the quality and dimensions of the image to avoid this happening to us.

CLIP SHOWS ILLUSTRATED ART STYLE PROJECTED WITHIN 360 ENVIRONMENT:

From doing this, we could gauge the kind of feel the visual creates and it was useful to see projected on a bigger screen surrounding us. In the video, the display moves as Kiera sat outside on the desktop making adjustments to see if we could make the positioning and resolution better. A cool feature of this software is that you can adjust the alignment and positioning through 4 simple interactions on the desktop, which was useful to think about what players will see as soon as they enter the space. Below, I have attached a video of me asking Kiera her opinion on this visual display compared to the previous examples. We did a lot of conversing and evaluating in the space and this short clip is an example of the kind of things we'd discuss - without having to document every conversation!

QUICK EVALUATION:

I asked Kiera her opinion on this art style in the space and her view on how we could potentially use other visual displays. Her opinion was that the use of illustrated visuals would be good to potentially explore a narrative which I agreed to be a nice idea. We also established by doing this, there would be much more opportunity for player interactions which we'd like to focus on next Semester. Compared to our previous visual examples, we agreed they were fun and 'quirky', but didn't leave players with much to engage and interact with. Something like this would remain player focus and require their attention throughout.

WHAT DO I THINK?

I was happy with the result from these experiments because I think we did a great job at capturing our essential experience. I really love the use of a 360 degree screen and the convenience of the cylinders set-up is perfect. If we were to construct our own space I think we'd struggle with this, especially sourcing our own surround sound and projectors, and then making sure this all works in the space. Considering the amount of time we have, it might be worth using the Cylinder and filming a short film within it, to display at our arcade event how we intend for gameplay to work. Kiera, Charlie and I agreed the sense of immersion was much stronger than in the quiet room (with our own set-up) and we believe this is due to its size and other immersive features. Although, Kiera and I still intend to think about our own sustainable construction. I also really loved the projection of the illustrated visuals, although they were of a bad quality, I liked the feel of this. It made it feel open and airy.

DESIGN CONCLUSIONS/DECISIONS:

These experiments allowed us to have a greater understanding of how to use the space, what we could project and how we would incorporate interactions into it. It is definitely a space we will keep in consideration for our final major project but we will have to do a deep dive into how we'd set this up. It was useful to experiment and evaluate how we could use it - from this I believe our next steps are to consider player input as well as our own space. I plan to compare the use of our own space to the cylinder and document software/hardware needed to set these things up. Kiera and I are quite enthusiastic towards designing our own sustainable box because we believe this could be a fun way to introduce environmental factors into our design. My documentation for this can be found here: The Physical Space.

FINAL EVALUATION AND REFLECTION OF PROTOTYPES

DESIGN CONCLUSIONS

Overall, I am pleased with the outcome of our personal and collaborative prototypes as it allowed us to have a greater understanding of how we could use the space and think about the player experience throughout gameplay. Our main focus for our project is players feelings and emotions, so by taking our tester with us to visits and conducting small tests allowed us to decide whether or not we were achieving our desired effect. I'd say from my prototypes it's clear that we are on the right track and I am excited to take it further next Semester by finalising on the kind of interactions we will implement into our design and development. The use of 'The 6m Cylinder' has been extremely beneficial for testing purposes and to give us an idea of what possibilities there are for us to use. After evaluating the effectiveness of this space, we have agreed to take this space forward with us and consider it as the space we use for our final deliverable. This is due to its immersive features such as the integrated 360 degree display and built in 5.1 Surround Sound system. In addition to this, we have the opportunity to link our own devices/controllers to its screen to introduce player interaction. I will be explaining more of this here: The Physical Space. It has also given us a clearer idea of what our visuals might look like in the space, and by doing this we have come to the conclusion that the illustrated style would best suit our own personal skillsets and still be of interest to users. But, this is something we plan to test with a wider group of testers in Semester Two.

Prototyping the Quiet Space I feel was a great way to showcase our main project goals - a possible intervention on school/university campuses. This was a good way to demonstrate how we can transform rooms on campus to become an immersive quiet zone/safe space, which is highly accessible and available to students when they need it the most. Because of this, I feel this would be a great demo to document or link in our Project Proposal, to show how we have explored other possibilities for the space, without the need for a full-on construction or set-up.

To conclude, Kiera and I are happy with our position in Phase Four and plan to begin refining and finalising our Project Proposal. In the last week or so, we plan to apply a suitable methodology to Semester two and begin distributing tasks across the last 12 weeks. For my own personal development, I plan to continue documenting my knowledge into The Physical Space, and finish this phase by writing up a Game Overview and Reflection.

On my following prototype page, I plan to document a small prototype and test for the supportive mobile game.

Follow-up sections can be found here:

Prototyping/Testing App

Prototyping & Testing The Physical Space:

Prototyping & Testing
The Physical Space: