Demo 📣 Turn On Your Sound Volume at 00:45
Role
Gameplay Design
Interaction Design
Visual Design
Duration
3 weeks - Nov. 2022
Tool
Unity 3D
Resonance Audio
C#(Visual Studio)
Team
Yolanda Yu - Designer
Clayton Izuka - Audio Engineer
David Minnix - Software Engineer
XR Device
Oculus Quest
OVERVIEW
Sweet Spot
This project is a novel VR interface for music expression(VIME) created in Unity, offering a musical experience that is both immersive and engaging. Users/casual musicians can explore, have fun and create their own music by interacting with the VR environment using Oculus2 controllers.
The concept is about a new “impossible” instrument. To make it intuitive for users, our final design facilitates a form of musical expression that builds on a tradition of ambient and generative music, which focuses on listening and discovery.
🎉We won 🥇#1 most popular project among 22 projects in Immersive Media Showcase 2022 @ University of Michigan
CHALLENGE
Designing an environment as an instrument, new and "impossible"
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The interface should implement in VR, exploiting interactive, virtual-physical, acoustical, and visual affordances of VR.
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The interface can be governed by existing musical traditions, mental models and learned sensorimotor behavior or deviate from these entirely in the form of a novel interface.
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The scale of the interface should be conceived as a musical system.
CONTRIBUTION
What I am responsible for?
I initiated and developed our concept, and responsible for all vision and UI/UX designs. I designed our greenhouse environment and intuitive VR interactions that could be naturally integrated to our greenhouse concept scene. For example, the interaction idea of grabbing seed bags, pouring seeds into the bare soil area to make it grow, and pulling trash bins/barrels from the shed to make the sound of raindrops on it. I also designed diegetic UI elements to help users familiar with the environment. It includes UIs on the wood notice board, boxes of vegetables representations.
CONCEPT & RESEARCH
How did we generate the concept?
A question rises in my mind "how to define an instrument?" It reminds me that some artists usually make unique sounds out of everyday objects. For example, the Vegetable Orchestra performs on instruments made of fresh vegetables, Bruno Zamborlin transform the whole bicycle into a music interface for interaction, Trashbeatz even created the beat out of trash, etc. These inspire me "wow" might come from an "everyday" surprise.
To make abstract concept more intuitive, I proposed to consolidate all ideas together and set the concept of a rainy garden with a beautiful greenhouse and many seed beds in the open space for the sake of aesthetic and discovery user experience. Players can imagine themselves as a gardener to create their own music by planting vegetables, managing the trash and observing growth changes.
REFLECTIONS
If I have more time, how to improve the user experience?
INTERACTION DESIGN
Plant Your Seed in Raise Beds🎵
The seed play its unique sound and turns to the vegetables when it falls on the soil.
Rain On Cucumber🎵
It growths and play the unique sound when absorbing raindrop
Beat Made By Trash Can🎵
When trash bins are moved out of the shed, rain drops on them made the different beats.
GAME MECHANICS
Players are immersed in a serene rainy garden environment. They have the power to cultivate a harmonious soundscape by strategically planting seeds and placing trash cans throughout the garden.
ENVIRONMENT DESIGN
Greenhouse
Greenhouse stores 7 different seed bags
