Day 53: Step Right Up!
You may have noticed that this here blog is becoming less about daily postings than it is more event or activity related. I'm sparing you the play by play because honestly, development in an engine is so not sexy and frustrating as all get out. Last week was spent literally going through downloading various Unity builds to see what would and wouldn't work with all the beta mess I've gotten myself into. AKA:
So sparing you of all that brain numbing, seemingly regressive workflow, I give you my little adventure into demoing for the public at large. And not just any public event but the VXPC, the Virtual Experience Convention, put on by the fine students of UC Berkeley. Not only were they gracious, generous hosts, but they organized a helluva event that attracted a diverse array of XR companies, indie devs, an Oculus co-founder and a curious public.
Beyond sharing my work at the pitch contest a couple of weeks ago to a small, intimate audience, this was the first time I've ever demoed anything to strangers with varying exposure to VR. My elevator pitch was, "It's a musical wellness experience for the senses and the heart." We can argue whether or not that's too on the nose or reductive, but throwing endangered species into the mix seems a wee bit heady. This on top of the fact that I was introducing myself as a XR artist representing a global community of creators. I would describe the experience like being a carnie/concierge introducing people to your creation in the most welcoming way possible. You're put in this unique position of essentially blindfolding someone with a screen and guiding them through the process of navigating an alien world.
Getting unfiltered feedback in person was invaluable and gave me hard data for the things I can truly focus on. Here were a few things that came up:
- I'd like to see some kind of interactivity when I touch all the buttons. Even having haptic feedback when you pull the trigger was satisfying. (Sidenote: I loved that this user danced almost the whole time!)
- Have you thought of making this multiplayer?
- I can't tell if I'm flying or not. Can I fly up to the bee? (Scobot kindly furnished me with the coolest flight nav script ever that allows the user to be able to fly like they have jetpacks. I gave people two choices of passive vs flight. Roughly half the audience chose one or the other. And the confusion is due to the fact that the bees are already flying upwards.)
- In what ways do you see this being a wellness experience?
- Maybe there's a story you can build into it like the butterflies disappearing over time?
- All I can give you as feedback is to keep going forward with everything that you're doing.
The last statement was obviously so encouraging for me to hear because it came from a place of euphoria, which is more than I could possibly ask for. There was a general sense of wonderment, especially with women, when it came to their first encounter with the butterflies. Others enjoyed the buzzy club vibe of the bees.
Big thanks to Jose Andres Rosero for connecting me to the event and putting in the good word for me. I honestly have the best VR fam in the world! Here are some photos I took at the event featuring some unsuspecting victims, erm, I mean users!
