Vanderforge Inc.
Could changing one man's past change the world's future?
"I don't care how many people it displaces..."
Meet Mr. Vanderforge, an out of control real estate tycoon responsible for mass homelessness (and record profits). The player is tasked with infiltrating Mr. Vanderforge's office, where his memories are stored.
By jumping into his memories, the player is able to alter key moments in Vanderforge's past, to change his actions in the present.
Anything the player holds will travel to the memory with them, and clues as to what may change his mind lie in each memory.
The player can bring objects from Mr. Vanderforge's office into his memories to alter the outcome.
Blending film and game
The strict time constraints on this project heavily influenced the design. We wanted to tell an immersive story in VR without the need to create high fidelity animated characters,
and wanted to avoid the "2D popup" video integration that has become frustratingly standard in VR games. Our solution? 360 degree videos with a pause for action. A custom shader was implemented
to make the videos more "dreamy", and clearly convey to the player that the videos have been paused. The player is then presented with an opportunity to interact with the video.
We ran into some unique challenges due to our project workflow. Foremost, players had difficulty realizing exactly what to do or pay attention to during the key memories.
The camera resolution was simply not high resolution enough relative to the pixel density of the headset. This was remedied with a "Zoom and Enhance" style hint system, where key parts of each video are displayed to the player.
Vanderforge's memories can be scanned for clues to uncover secrets in his office.
This project was created with Unity using the SteamVR Plugin, targeting SteamVR headsets and Index hand controllers. The office environment was created with the performance constraints of VR in mind, and utilizes GPU instanced geometry for the wall trim sheet.
The outdoor portions beyond the office feature dynamic lighting from street cars. Hero assets such as the safe and desk feature static, baked elements combined with simple skinned meshes for the moving parts.
I handled all programming and 3D assets on this project.
Gameplay and structure was co-designed with Marie Leung . 2D photo assets were also created by Marie.
Production and filming by Jessica Cromp .
Acting by Shrishti Singh and Pranjal Chavarkar .