From Mosaic To Titanic. Project Idea Presentation.
Mosaics created by a local artist were a starting point of my VR projects. I imagined building an experience where the player would have to create something out of pieces, therefore this presentation theme was “from mosaic to Titanic”.
At this stage I knew I wanted to introduce not only the jigsaw puzzle to be put together, but also a story to be told along the building experience. Researching the topic of mosaics, 3d jigsaw puzzles and jigsaw puzzles in VR I came across the Titanic 3d model. Ony my way to LCC, I spotted a poster at the underground station advertising an exhibition celebrating Titanic’s 110th anniversary.
I decided to focus on Titanic experiences and research on what is available on the market.
There were three major affairs I found out about, all being real-life experiences.
The first one was the above-mentioned exhibition in London (https://titanicexhibitionlondon.com/; sold out so I did not have a chance to visit it), including some interactive elements, no VR though.
The second one, located in Australia gives visitors a chance to feel like Titanic’s passengers with interactive and real-life events fabrications on the ship, including the sinking motion (https://www.technifex.com/portfolio/titanic-the-experience/).
The last valuable place was the official Titanic Museum in Belfast (https://www.titanicbelfast.com/) offering a back-in-time travel-like experience.
All the above researched sites offer simulations at various levels and interactive entertainment. None of them provides activities based on cutting-edge, XR technology.
I looked further and found a Titanic VR app. Unfortunately, it was not possible to download and test the app. I only managed to find a website with its descriptions and some images.
My idea developed further, and I knew I did not want to recreate the events of the feral night in 1912. At the same time, I wanted to include 3 crucial (I thought) elements for the Titanic experience: Titanic, iceberg, and crash/sinking. These three would determine the game shape and its objective.
A pop-up book element was something I wanted to introduce to my VR experience as in my opinion, it is a wonderful way to start telling the story to people, and I wanted my experience to be connected to the story, not being only a random jigsaw puzzle the player must assemble without any context.
At this point the idea did not contain a lot of information in terms of the scene built. The idea was to have a starting point with a story on/related to Titanic, a jigsaw puzzle scene where the ship would be built back together after the crash with the iceberg (crash would trigger falling the ship into pieces) and the final scene. I still had to think that through and create a road map for the game.
I decided to use a ready Titanic asset available for free on Sketchfab. There was some work required on the model before I could move on to transferring it into puzzle pieces. It is, however, a ship suitable for my project.
I recently developed motion sickness in VR, therefore, I decided to create a static VR experience, without teleportation so it can be enjoyed by players with like my ailments.
This project involves a lot of work as it is going to be a completed VR project, ready to be played (on Quest 2). That means that I will be responsible for all the stages of production that are normally, in a professional environment, distributed within a team of people.
There might be some obstacles, like lack of opportunities to work (a.k.a. parenting and no time to progress with the course work), lack of knowledge in terms of the right code and interactions, and equipment issues (hopefully not this time!). All of them can be overcome with good planning, learning and a tiny bit of luck. There is nothing else to add for now, but to start planning. Wish me luck!