Wave
Type
Position
Date
Course project
Main Programmer & game designer
April 2018
Links
VR
Unreal Engine
Blueprint
Vaporwave
Game Design
Narrative Game
Script writing
Oculus Rift
Wave is a VR game inspired by the Vaporwave art & music where the players experience the life of a young millennial girl, Trix, that has just finished university and is about to take a crucial decision for her future. However, before making this final choice, she decides to spend a last relaxing afternoon in her student room, away from the problems, the stress and real life. The players will then be able to explore Trix’s room to find out more about her story while they listen to some music, watch relaxing vaporwave videos and play some minigames.
Interacting with the objects around the room will trigger memories of Trix’s past that will be narrated through her thoughts. Exploring the room, finding new objects and playing the minigames around will unlock new parts of the story, reflecting in the process the protagonist’s concerns, beliefs and memories, until the end of the game is triggered and the player will be able to make the decision about Trix’s future.
Wave was thought to be both a narrative game and a VR experience that the players can visit to just play around, listen to some music and relax. The experience tries to bring the players memories of the past through the relatable experiences that Trix narrates, at the same time that it brings that nostalgic and relaxing feeling that the vaporwave movement is inspired in. Wave is a game but also a place for the players to escape from the real world for a while, just as the protagonist does in her last afternoon in the room.
Wave was a game developed as part of the MA in Computer Games Art & Design at Goldsmiths, University of London. It was a 5 weeks project and it was developed by a team of 4 artists and 1 programmer. Due to my background in programming I was chosen to be the main and only programmer, as well as one of the two main designers of the project.
The principal aim of the project was to create a calm, aesthetic, immersive experience and environment that players could visit to relax by taking advantage of the capabilities that the VR technology offers.
Based on the vaporwave imagery and music our team tried to trigger the nostalgic and bittersweet feeling that this music and artistic movement is about, at the same time that we explore some personal but also relatable problems and feeling that the millennial generation faces.
As one of the lead designers of the game, I was in charge of designing the interactions that the players were going to have with the objects in the room, the minigames, events and the layout of the room where the game takes place. In addition, I also co-wrote the script and dialogues of the game.
As the only programmer of the project I was in charge of several tasks such as setting up the project, programming every possible interaction, event and minigame of the game (whack-the-mole game, space invaders VR...) or programming a sound manager to avoid problems and overlaps between the dialogues and the various sources of music and sound, among others.
Working on a VR project was a challenge but also gave me the possibility of learning something different, use new tools and face new problems that I had to solve on my own. The project also allowed me, as a game designer, to experiment and create something different to my previous projects using the capabilities and advantages that a VR set can offer. It also gave me the possibility of developing my narrative skills by being in charge of writing the script.
Wave also gave us the possibility to collaborate with musicians of Goldsmiths, University of London, that created music exclusively for the game, as well as with the actress Harriet Green, that made an excellent job giving voice to Trix.
Wave is a project in which our team tried to expose some personal thoughts, feelings and problems that we thought that many people end up facing eventually in their lives and that we hope that players enjoy as much as we enjoyed creating it.
