In this series of blog posts, we will take you through the creative process behind Kinesics. This artistic research project explores the future role of body language in Virtual Reality. This is the ninth post in a series of ten.
We had planned three prototypes in different directions, now with all three of them done it was time to look back. During playtesting of Switched Hands (see previous post) at Indigo 2019 we noticed the popularity of the lobby. This simple empty room is used as an introduction to the game where the players can see each other and can get used to navigating in VR. Even though this room does not offer any gameplay or activities, it proved to be very popular with young players, sometimes even more so than the main game.
Looking back at our three prototypes we realised that each of them was forcing specific behaviour on players by removing some forms of self expression. Although the first one, Charades, offered plenty of expressive freedom, the other two were decidedly more linear. Switched Hands only rewards gesturing in the exact way that the maze requires, and Ghosthands only rewards being in exactly the same position as the other player - anything less feels like failing.
Game Versus Play
The trick of stimulating certain behaviour in players by limiting the options of successful interactions is not wrong per se. In fact, it’s a big part of game design. Players need to be guided in their actions in order for a game designer to facilitate the intended playful state. But in our search to create totally novel situations that only VR could offer, we strayed too far from a basic premise that already works so well in real life: physical closeness and a wide spectrum of expression. All three prototypes put both players at a distance from each other. In SwitchedHands and GhostHands, particularly, there were lots of things that made you fail, and only a few things that made you succeed. Within their own context they were fun, but the possibilities for expression were narrow. Seeing our younger players having that much fun in the lobby, a simple empty room where they only have each other, made us realise that we had to shift our focus.
Calvin and Hobbes - Bill Watterson
Now, to be fair, rules are important for a game and, to a broader extent, ‘play’. Rules outline our affordances (the things we can do in a given situation). From a rule based game like chess, to the ‘invent a new rule every minute’ child’s play, so brilliantly depicted in Calvin and Hobbes ‘Calvin Ball’ cartoons, rules help drive playful behaviour. But, rules are also very binary and deterministic: something is either ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, the more rules you add in your design, the more ways to be wrong. Though, a rule based design philosophy works great for video games, where the game controller already limits the expression, and thus helps to streamline a players expectations. For example, if the main button on the controller lets you shoot a gun, it is abundantly clear what is expected of you as a player.
But, our new experience shouldn’t use buttons or joysticks that communicate a certain interaction. Instead, it would track the human body through a headset and both hands. Within those three points of movement, a world of physical expression lies ready to be unlocked and added to our digital forms of play. So, we decided to go back to the source - two humans close to each other in a situation that emphasises every movement. This led to new ideas for a fourth prototype: Copy Paste Dance. We felt confident that this idea matched our research expectations and would bring our research project to a satisfactory conclusion.
Creating room for a new prototype
The idea of what we wanted to do was fully formed in our head. However, we did not account for another prototype in the budget. Even though we cancelled Ghosthands early on in the making process, it was hard to find enough room in the budget for a fourth prototype. Parallel to this, Monobanda was in talks with KABOOM festival about contributing work from our portfolio to the festival’s programme. Instead of pitching old work, we decided to pitch to KABOOM our new ideas for Copy Paste Dance. We asked them to contribute to the budget that was needed to realise the concept. We already had a lot of functionality up and running, so we could make something new relatively cheap. In turn, KABOOM would get a premiere of a totally new VR experience for a modest price. Within a day we animated the following mockup video to visualize our ideas. KABOOM graciously agreed and enabled us to realise our fourth unplanned prototype, bringing the whole Kinesics research full circle.
Our next post is about the design process of this last prototype: Copy Paste Dance. This research was a collaboration with ImproVive and funded by Creative Industries NL.