Process Overview 7 Months, 3 People, 1 Interviewee
This project is my graduation project for the MA in Immersive Factual Storytelling at UCL, under the mentorship of the incredible Amy Rose.
Developed using Unity3D and Oculus Interaction SDK
Experience Designer: Felicity Chen
Producer: Felicity Chen & Hejunchao Researcher: Hejunchao Li & Felicity Chen
Lead programmer: Nova Lu
Level design: Felicity Chen
Audio Design: Felicity Chen
Pitching the idea to the mentor panel:
Junchao and I were clear about our vision: we wanted to tell a story through the voice of a female interviewee, focusing on the potential that virtual worlds and shared imagination offer for redefining our lives and identities by disassociating from our physical bodies. We also aimed to challenge the role of gender in the digital era. Although the concept was initially unclear, the pitch was recognized for its strong potential and was selected to move forward.
Research and interview:
Go under the skin of the story.
The most difficult part is to build connections with potential users who have never used VR before, or envisioned the possibility of living another life online.
"why can't people live their full potential as themselves?"
After months of researching, having fun, frustration, and countless interviews in Vox-pop style in VRchat, I met FriendlyGhost in a newly developed bar in VRchat, she was talking to the bartender Sugar, and I overheard something I couldn't believe hearing, so I sat down (by changing my model's pose), then the story officially begins.
Ideation and paper Edit
Friendlyghost's experience of healing from personal trauma and dealing with her autism in a more controlled safe online space finally gives us the root of the story. Her opinion on her real and virtual body representation, virtual intimacy and real-living experience with autism
As the experience designer, I make the user flow based on the interview material, condensing the 4-hour recording into a 15-minute experience that represents the interviewee fairly, making people step into her shoes and experience the potential of living another life in her skin.
Audio Design:
I use Adobe Audition to edit interview material, focusing on tasks such as noise cancellation, removing glitches, eliminating breathing and mouth noises, and enhancing overall sound quality.
For creating immersive ambient sounds and background music, I work with Reaper
Video Editing:
I use Adobe Premiere Pro to edit all video materials needed in the unity project and the trailer.