Hello fellow creators! I had super fun attending the Launchpad event and meeting with you all! The weekend was much more than I could ask for, and the shared community was so supportive of everything VR.
While the project proposal exercise did help me come up with some core concepts that I would like to explore--mainly 'Meditation' and 'Boating', the mentor-ship and lunches and evening talks that I had with launchpad friends have inspired me to shift the perspective on my project to tell more personal and intimate story.
My goal with the project Lanterns, is share a cultural experience in an interactive VR game-- the Lantern Festivals! I have been inspired by the lantern festivals of China, Japan, and just recently found out about the Rise Lantern festival in the Mojave. These are gatherings where thousands of lanterns are released, into the sky or on water, and are meaningful in different ways to each culture. I want to capture the awe of sitting in in the midst of a sea of lanterns!
My hope is to not go overboard on scoping the project, as creating in VR is still new, but there's so much to experiment with~
This week I did some conceptual drawings of the experience:
The plan is to still do a boat ride for the player, with consistent movement and some slight leaning control. The lanterns will be released into the river alongside the player at the start, and the journey downstream will be interesting as some lanterns will need the player's help getting unstuck from natural obstacles!
The water lanterns eventually transcend into sky lanterns, and you will be taken on a spiritual journey into the clouds.
I'm really looking forward to creating this into a VR game, and following the progress of your projects, too!
Andrew Dang
Posts
