TECHNICAL DESIGN
The past couple weeks I have been experimenting with way to make my waiting experience and trying different technical approaches to achieve this.
My first experiment was learning how to make objects move along a spline automatically to simulate the autonomous robots. I followed a tutorial I found online and was able to make a few different configurations. I found out that the objects moving on the spline can push physics objects:
I also practiced trigger boxes:
Next, I learned how to make a procedurally generated grid of objects and change their spacing, rotation and introduce randomness into these parameters:
I also did the tutorials to connect blueprints in order to learn how to bring all of these elements together.
Finally, I tried making objects destructible because I was thinking of having the object that is built be destroyed in the end and wanted to explore different ways of achieving that:
VISUAL DESIGN
To make my project more concrete, I came up with a visual language and setting to model it off of. I decided to base my waiting experience on a doctor’s office waiting room and have the interaction simulate the wooden bead game for kids. I am going to try to abstract these experiences, but I hope that because the colors and shapes will be familiar, they will subconsciously evoke experiences of waiting for people.
From these images, I came up with the below palette:
Next, I started mocking up my abstract waiting room based on this inspiration:
I like the tension between the bright beads and the drab room, but one thing I was concerned about was being able to see where the balls are going. Jonathan said that this would be easier to perceive in VR. I tested it and found this to be true.
I also talked with Jonathan about making the space smaller and working on adding texture before worrying too much about making the interaction. This will be my focus for the next few days and then I will turn to the interaction!