For my final major project and thesis I want to create a project that is inspired by the work of Hazelight studios who create video games that you have to play in Co-op with another player that you know and i want to take this concept into virtual reality and create an experience with this in mind. For the narrative I have also got a strong interest in multiversal media and the stories that could be told in many different ways including Virtual reality.
Multiversal Media
One element I want to explore in a virtual reality experience is the concept of the ‘Multiverse’ and how you can present and play with these ideas. Some media which explores these concepts are ‘Dr Strange and the Multiverse of Madness’, ‘Steins gate’, ‘Tatami Galaxy’, ‘Inception’, ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’, ‘ Looper’, ‘ Spiderman Into The Spider-Verse’ and its sequels.
Cooperative Experience
I want my Final major project to focus on a narrative driven Co-Operative experience that has to be played in multiplayer in Virtual Reality. Some experience that can be taken as reference for this are ‘A Way Out’, ‘It Takes Two’, ‘We Were Here Trilogy’, ‘Portal 2’ and ‘Phasmophobia.
Thesis Research Topic
How multidimensional spaces are being presented through media and virtual reality
Experience Concept
The experience can only be played through cooperative online or local with two players using virtual reality headsets. Each worlds or dimension can have different visual styles and can affect the others dimensional worlds. Different areas can be explored such as how the players communicate either verbally, visually or through interaction etc.
Dream space | Dream Theory | Limitless Space | Impossible Space | Multi-layered | Earth in a World | Endless | Sand | Time
Initial Ideas and Concepts
For my initial ideas i started to write down all of my notes on the whiteboard as i usually do for all of my projects which you can see from some of the images below.
Art Style
For the art style of my project I started to think about unique ways that you could differentiate the two dimensions or worlds from one another which included making both worlds black and white and using some selected colours to make them look different. Another idea was to extend this further by using a form of cell shading which would allow one environment to be black with white outlines and another environment to be white with black outlines.
Some more inspiration I looked into when considering these art styles were paper man, Epic Mickey, Mad world, Trek to Yomi and also for further ideas on changing the world and changing the colours, I looked into De Blob.
Environments
When creating two different environments that need to differentiate from one another in separate dimensions, there are many different ways you can go about this from minor changes to completely different scenery. Some examples of this are games such as ‘The Medium’ in which the character walks through the real world but can also change her mind to her counterpart showing a world rotting away and almost shown as a hell scape. There is also a game called Plasticity which has a very similar concept showing one world clean and in daylight while the other world is dark and grown over or destroyed/taken over by nature of the world.
Narrative Ideas
One element that i need to realise is how the narrative can be explored in this experience such as the idea of the two players being Yin and Yang or night and say which then represent two opposities to one another perhaps trying to bring balance to the world they are in.
Mirror Reflections
One element that I think could work well for a split dimension story, is utilising the reflections or mirrors that could be seen in the environment. There is a range of media which uses this well such as Edgar Wrights ‘Last Night in Soho’ where the two main character are shown through the reflections portraying the same movements and expressions so show they are sharing one mind. This is also shown in Disney’s ‘Sorcerers Apprentice’ where using the characters magic they created a ‘mirror world’ which traps the character that looks visually similar but they are the only inhabitant.
The idea of a mirrored world or alternate world is also shown in Netflix’s ‘Stranger Things’ which portrays a realm called the ‘Upside Down’ which is a dark, post apocalyptic environment of the real world within the story.