This is a short game about a grandma, who has dementia, finding lost jewelry for her granddaughter, Venessa. Vanessa is getting married tomorrow. Grandma has bought some jewelries for Vanessa but she does not remember where in the house she has hidden the valuable dowry.
The VR environment and blueprint were built in Unreal Engine 5 in December 2023.
Assets Creation
I scanned part of the assets in the game using PolyCam. One of the challenges was fixing the object at a spot and circling the camera around it as I didn't have a pro setup for the scan. Some objects had very tiny bases so keeping them standing upright was difficult.
Approximately 60 images could create a pretty decent scan for a mushroom. The polygon count for the first mushroom below is 132718.
Narrative Flow
Game Design and Mechanics
The audience have grandma’s perception and they are going to look for three pieces of jewelry based on distorted hints. For example, one of the hints suggests that the silver bangle was placed under the umbrellas but in fact it was placed under some umbrella-shaped mushrooms.
The story takes place in a surreal outdoor environment, symbolizing grandma’s difficulty in identifying objects and that she sometimes gets confused even in familiar places. For example, broccolis represent trees and croissants represent mountains.
An internal monologue is added in the beginning of the experience so players are able to learn more about Grandma's condition. As players cross the bridge, entering the island, a conversation between grandma and Vanessa pops up, telling the players their mission is to find three pieces of jewelry and leave the island.
Players would be able to find hints in the environment. As they walk closer to the “!”, the hint pops up on the screen. (4 hints in total, each of them includes animation, audio and text triggers). When players walk towards the lost jewelry, a text box pops up and tell them the lost jewelry is found (the task has been completed); when the player walk away, the jewelry disappears. When they collect all three pieces and leave the island, the screen is going to show a “mission completed” text box.
