Having spoken to Herman today, there are a few developments. Considering that a 5-10 minute is recommended for the degree show, I am considering making the VR aspect playable without the other pieces. The AR, website and other elements would instead add to the VR experience if the player is devoted enough to try them. After checking out a few degree shows, I would like to have a stamp in my area that the player can stamp on themselves as a form of devotion to the leader. The main thing to decide about the VR part is the core challenges or tasks. Once that is set up, I can add in easter eggs and extra bits that would only make sense to someone who has tried the AR and other parts of the overall experience. I will be careful to have the VR make sense and be interesting on its own as well.
I could perhaps invert the hierarchy. Making the VR bit (the least accessible) the first experience in the narrative that then unlocks the next, and so on. This would be simpler to achieve, but would not demonstrate what I plan on looking into in the thesis.
The challenges withing the VR part being based on movement is something that would interest me. https://youtu.be/9NZov6IffoU
Don’t Let Go is a horror VR game from 2014 where the player must keep their fingers on two particular keys despite bees and other creatures bothering them. Using that as inspiration, I am considering making it so that the player must stay still in uncomfortable positions for certain amounts of time to pass on the next level, and finally meet the cult leader. There would be distractions and perhaps dizzying optical illusions to unbalance the player and test their devotion. I am going to try out hand tracking and use that (rather than hand controllers) so that the devotional poses feel more realistic. This would perhaps also free up the controllers to attach them to the players feet in a disguise so that leg movement is also tracked.
With this in mind, I would alter the thesis research question to focus less on status, and more on cross platform engagement and devotion.
“Using devotion to create cross platform retention”