Balancing Learning and Creating

The second week of the semester has flown by, bringing plenty of exciting developments across coursework, research, and professional projects. This week, I found myself diving deeper into refining systems, learning new tools, and exploring directions for both my thesis and my creative work. Let’s jump into the updates!

Academic Update

Graduate Studio (6400)

This week, I officially joined a project team to create a game exploring how text-based, first-person, and third-person perspectives influence a player’s empathy for their character and the characters they interact with. What sets this project apart from others I’ve worked on is its focus on preparing for potential research, including drafting a conference paper proposal and an IRB request, rather than just creating the game first and analyzing its merits later.

My contributions so far include adapting a dialogue system I built for last year’s Identity Project and diving into research papers to inform our approach. Papers like “Perspective-Taking of Non-Player Characters in Prosocial Virtual Reality Games” (Ho & Ng) and “First Person vs. Third Person Perspective in a Persuasive Virtual Reality Game” (Fang & Kambe) have been particularly enlightening. They revealed debates within the research community: some argue third-person encourages empathy by creating a necessary separation between self and character, while others champion first-person for its immersive perspective-taking.

Next week, I’ll polish the dialogue system, start designing UI layouts for all three perspectives, and prepare for a motion capture session to create animations for the first- and third-person modes. I’m also aiming to maintain a habit of reading a research paper a day to broaden my understanding.

Unreal Class (5193)

In my Unreal class, I’ve been learning Unreal’s node-based material system and the basics of cinematography. I’ve also finalized the scene where my animation will take place and roughed out camera placements for each of the four scenes.

Next up: finding NPCs for the scene and recording motion capture for character movements using a tracker-less system in my lab. The project has a quick turnaround, so it won’t have a lot of polish, but I’m hoping to create something that resonates emotionally, even if it’s rough around the edges.

Thesis Updates

This week, I’ve narrowed my thesis focus to three broad areas: XR, narrative games, and empathy. After discussing this with my mentor, I’ve realized these “buckets” need further refinement. My task for next week is to define these areas more clearly while addressing a set of thought-provoking questions my mentor provided. This will involve more reading and self-reflection to better shape my direction moving forward.

Research Update

Spatial Project

Progress on integrating a user’s real-world environment into a VR experience continued this week. Using Meta’s sample package, I developed a home environment system that identifies real-world objects and replaces them with corresponding virtual props. I also learned how to use reflection, an advanced technique that allows access to private and internal methods. It was a fascinating challenge, and while I still need to test the implementation in builds, I’m optimistic about the results.

Next week, I’ll create a procedural layout tool to generate gameplay elements like platforms for a “floor is lava” concept, bridging real-world and virtual environments.

Circle Updates

This week, I presented my remake of the team’s old game, Froggy and Friends, and uploaded it to our website for future exhibitions. For our rhythm game, I collaborated with our writer and a new sound designer to plan how to integrate a custom soundtrack with multiple playable instruments. The goal is to ensure all combinations of instruments sound harmonious.

Next week, I’ll focus on populating the tavern environment with NPCs performing simple actions to make the game world feel more alive during player performances.

Professional Update: AfroDuck Studios

It’s been a quieter week with AfroDuck. I incorporated changes requested by the writing team for the shop system and updated the pause menu with new art from our UI artist. The new design feels like a big step forward, and I’m happy with the progress.

Next week, I’ll work on improving mouse controls across systems and revisit the character data tool I created a few years ago to make it more efficient for the team’s current needs.

Conclusions

This week has been a whirlwind of learning and creating, balancing my coursework, thesis, and professional projects. While juggling everything has been a challenge, I’ve felt energized by the new skills I’m developing and the progress I’ve made. As I continue to narrow my thesis focus and push forward on my projects, I’m excited to see how these efforts evolve.

Thanks for following along on this journey! Until next Sunday, logging off.