Serious Game Idea
Having to design and create a serious game in VR sounds like a big challenge. Especially, that I am not a massive gamer. Learning more about games, video games and finally, serious games during my course, made thinking of my final project slightly clearer.
The amount of information was at first overwhelming, but then, the more I read about the subject the more I was able to understand the characteristics of both, games and serious games.
Planning towards my own project, I had to come up with the theme for it. It was said that the more I am involved in the subject, the more I enjoy it and know about it, the easier it will be to make it into a serious game.
My initial idea was related to veganism. I started with writing down loose thoughts related to this area of my life; next I decided to focus on a plant-based diet. A rough idea for the game would be to educate society about a vegan diet, vegan cooking-ingredients, vegan food in general. I would be focused on building a virtual shop environment where the player would play some sort of a quiz game filled with information about the right ingredients needed to compose a vegan meal. I would build 3-dimensional models, add UI elements and interactions to make the game engaging and interactive. Through this game I would like to present the simplicity of the plant-based diet and encourage people to give it a go, without being too preachy about it.
That was the first idea for the serious game I am to build.
The second idea appeared during my recent reflection on me being temporarily unable to cycle. I am a cyclist and a fan of bike riding and looking after my own two wheels. Therefore, my idea was to build a bike-service station where the player would be introduced to how a bike is built, and how to perform a simple check on a bike’s specific parts, how to check the brakes or change the flat tyre etc.
I do know that cycling in London, where I live, becomes more popular and a new infrastructure is being built rapidly. Covid-19 pandemic has had its impact on cycling, too. I am going to research the topic further to reach reliable data I could use in my serious game.
I am also aware of cycling programs, such as Bikeability, designed to teach young and adults, with all abilities, how to cycle and how to be a safe and confident bike user. I recognize their good impact as my both children benefited from those sessions and learnt how to cycle in a pleasant and appropriate way to their age and skills within hours.
In some cases, bringing back someone’s cycling confidence or encouraging one to start using a bike could begin in a virtual environment where a user would be introduced to the subject through knowing how the bike is built and how to maintain it or what to do in case of minor faults, or when the bike should be serviced by a professional. It would be the first step to get familiar and comfortable with the bike and bike maintenance, without having to own a bike.
The bike game would require building a 3-dimensional bicycle model (in Maya) with detachable parts and creating a scene with implemented interactions and UI elements to make it engaging and immersive.
As I have two ideas for a VR serious game close to my heart, I need to give it a deeper thought and decide which one I am going to execute. I will give myself some time over the Easter break to make that choice.