With the goal of creating a deeply immersive experience in mind, Quinn, Dom, and I each contributed concept art based upon my written concept of an arid planet filled geode-like with bioluminescence. Our plan: to use darkness to instill the player with a sense of loneliness and vulnerability, while using light and scale to evoke a feeling of wonder.

Since an emotional connection with our non-player character was the goal upon which the success of our project hinged, the design of said character was important to nail. Quinn and I both contributed a number of sketches for potential character designs, focusing more on appearance than on backstory since this character was nonverbal and nonhuman. In the end, the team was torn between two:

Since our focus for LUX was to foster a connection between the player and Frend, gameplay consisted of a series of tasks that would endear the alien to the player.

Originally, we designed a series of distinct puzzles that would require a richly interactive environment and a number of highly-specific animations. Given that this was the team’s first time working in VR (and for many of us, our first time working in game design), we did not realize how much work this entailed until a graybox prototype proved many of our ideas out-of-scope. We quickly pivoted and re-designed our levels with a better understanding of our constraints.

Our final iteration of the levels relied on simplified mechanics, while still fostering a player-NPC connection through a series of challenges which demonstrated Frend’s willingness to help (and his adorable love of apples). According to player testimonials, these scenarios were highly effective in building a bond between the player and Frend.

Though neither the player nor the alien creature had speaking lines, we still needed some way to convey our narrative context to the player.

Without time to animate an entire cutscene, I suggested that we start the game with a simple soundscape to convey that the player-character is having to evacuate their crashing vessel in an escape pod. Once the game’s visuals fade in, the rest of the narrative setup is delivered via radio, with a rough-around-the-edges character informing the player-character of their goal: to get back to their ship. Since this was my first time writing voice-acted dialogue, I needed to iterate on my original script based on the team’s feedback to write dialogue that was both succinct and full of character.

Beyond writing the script, I also designed the shape of the narrative, including the twist that takes place at the end, when the player has to trick Frend into being left behind. The goal with this twist was to deliver a Pixar-esque punch to the gut that leaves the player emotionally rattled even upon removing their headset. If the tears in our playertesters’ eyes were anything to go by, it worked beautifully.

With a six-person team full of talented artists at our disposal, we set ourselves the challenge of creating all the assets in our game from scratch. This allowed us to create a highly original storyworld, full of luminescent space-anemone and flying jellyshrooms. Above are a couple examples of my artistic contributions.

Beyond static artwork, I took on a large portion of Frend’s animations, working to convey his sweet and bumbling personality with every gesture, head-tilt, and blink. These detailed animations were an important part of endearing the alien to our players.

Days before the due-date, I left the team for a few hours to create a piece of music which would enhance the most emotional moments of the game. Without time to write anything out, I improvised piano, violin, and voice tracks in GarageBand and mixed them to blend into a rich and whimsical soundtrack for LUX.

takeaways

The semester culminated in a massive class-wide showcase, which received news coverage and attention from many professionals in the area. Our project in particular received a great deal of attention, with an overflowing sign-up list and interest from local VR companies.

As I watched dozens of players laugh, smile, and cry their way through the first game I had ever worked on, something cemented in my mind: I would do this forever. I would build narrative experiences that reach people with the power of interactivity.

I was lucky enough to take a step toward this future in 2019 with help from the Oculus Start program, which rewarded our efforts on LUX VR with free Rift headsets and tickets to Oculus Connect 6 for the entire team. Quinn and I flew down to California to attend, and found it a validating and exciting experience that left us inspired and full of ideas for future narrative projects.