Role: Third Year Student
Timeline: Autumnn 2023
Professor: Shadrick Addy
Description: This project involved working as a team to create an virtual experience using Oculus Quest and Unity. My groups experience is the work of the graffiti artist Banksy.
Proposal
Overview
Banksy VR game is an interactive museum that allows the user to view his artwork and get a taste of what it’s like to be him. The game is designed for any age group who either wants to learn more about Banksy as an artist or experience what it's like to be a graffiti artist.
Our goal is for users to experience his artwork in a virtual setting. Since his artwork is mostly graffiti there is no physical museum that could showcase it authentically. We created a setting that immerses the user into a space that is similar to where Banksy would create his art.
The onboarding will give instructions and then the user has freedom to do anything within the space. The act of graffiti is illegal and taboo so the last thing we want to do is create rules or constraints on the user's time in the game.
Game Items and Sound
Game objects we chose to immerse the user in the game were objects that created an atmosphere that Banksy would be painting in. Objects like dumpsters, tires, cars, barrels and pallets.
There are two aspects of sound within this experience. When the user goes up to each piece of artwork of Banksy’s the plaque next to it will be read off for the user. This way the user can learn the information without having to read. This also is for younger kids, if they don’t know how to read they can still learn. The second aspect of sound is the police siren. There will be more detail about it in the interactive design portion but at some point within the game a police siren will go off. This shows the user what it would have been for Banksy since graffiti is illegal. There was always a risk that the police would show up.
Interactive Design
The primary element of interaction design is the ability for the user to create a work of graffiti art themselves. They can do so by picking up various colored cans of spray paint and moving them around while facing the wall which leaves behind artwork resembling graffiti. After a certain amount of time, a police siren is heard by the user in the distance until the user leaves the area, adding to the excitement of graffiti and to convey the reality of Banksy’s oftentimes illegal artwork.
Other interactive elements include the beginning scene where the user is instructed with info about the scene and can point at the info to continue where a painting is then shredded in front of the user. Another interactive element is that the voiceover of the painting descriptions activates when you’re in a designated area near the painting and deactivates when you leave it.
Enviorment Design
The building that the game is placed in is a warehouse that is partially outside. This amplifies the rundown aesthetic that we were going for. The game objects filling the space are all rustic and dirty. The hope is to make the user feel like they are a graffiti artist themselves and filling the space with rundown objects help communicate that feel. There is also a portion that is completely inside and that is the gallery with Banksy’s more professional pieces of art. This is a completely different aesthetic than the rest of the game. This is more of a traditional museum atmosphere.
Challenges/Conclusion
The main struggles our team faced was with the interaction design. Interaction design within unity is very new to us so understanding how to do that caused a lot of trial and error. We were able to work through most of those problems it just took a lot of trouble shooting. Our main interaction was the spray paint within the room. This is definitely an important asset for the room and makes it more than just a museum but was the most difficult to work through. Researching Banksy and then creating a virtual room and experience was a really cool opportunity. We all learned a lot from this project and how to create a enjoyable experience that would cost a lot of money in real life and bring it to the virtual world.
Video
Audio Used
Audio for painting "girl with balloon"
"Get em" when the police have caught you!
Police Siren when the painting time is up
Poster
Process Photos
