Space Shop VR – Anja's Website

Space Shop VR is an multiplayer-VR game for which you just need 1 VR-headset.

Genre: Puzzle

Platform: Lenovo Mirage Solo (VR-headset) – exclusive

Artstil: 3D – comic

Engine: Unity 3D

Team:

Producer
Game Designer
2 Technical Artists
3 Programmers
2 Additional Programmers (Intern)
Character Moddler
Character Rigger
Character Animator

Year: 2018-2019

Duration: 6 month

My Part:

Original Idea
Programming
- Parts of the gameplay
- Procedural generation of alien behavior patterns
Level Design
Lighting

Summary:

Space Shop VR was a contract work for Media Markt at the Media Design Innovation Hub (MD.I Hub) where I was working as a programmer. Media Markt wanted a VR game that is played in a group of several people with just 1 VR-headset but is enjoyable for all players at the same time.

We did a design workshop at the MD.I Hub, where I came up with the idea that we could do a game where one player is the shop keeper in a sci-fi shop and the other players, must help him to translate the pantomime of the alien clients to sell them the correct items.

The clue is, that the VR-player has to imitate the pantomime of the aliens so the other players can translate it with the help of a handbook. So the handbook players can look at there friend doing quiet silly pantomime and solve the riddle of the translation. While they are solving the translation puzzle the VR-player is interacting with cute aliens and an amazing sci-fi world.

It is essential to the game that the VR player can’t memorize the translation rules and skip the communication with the other players. Because of this fact, we decided to procedurally generate all possible behavior patterns that our aliens can perform. This leads to up to a thousand different behaviors that one alien can perform to tell the player that it wants to buy a burger.

The species of this lady is called 'Wobbler' they are communicating through there great passion - beatboxing.
'Blomer' are not the brightest stars in the universe, but their pantomime language is one of the most difficult to learn. Not many aliens are able to stand on one leg, rotate with an arm while boxing in the air with the other one.
The 'Dumpling' is a kind of pet for intelligent aliens and brings you the shopping list of his master.
'Tansid' arguments are often misunderstood as dance battles.
The 'Gordians' are very polite and arrogant aliens. If you answer one of their formal greeting-questions wrong, they will leave immediately.
The 'Ininin' is a kind of collective lifeform that consists of 16 small 'Inis'. They communicate with color changing formations.
The 'Quaxlers' have a very agile language, where they are doing different poses and facial expressions. 'Quaxler' conversations are highly appreciated as yoga exercises in the rest of the galaxy.
'Tentits' are a deep sea life form and communicate with the help of colorful slime, which they spit on your counter.
It is in the nature of the 'Nihilans' to deny everything including there own existence. They will not tell you, what they want, but everything they not want. They communicate with a flash of there glowing antennas and a blink of their 3 eyes.
The 'Bigbons' have evolved quiet a bit different than other aliens. They can't see or hear you and they have no hands. Even so, they are highly intelligent carnivores that communicate through telepathy.
The 'Bigbon' is often forced to move the mind of his conversational partner in his own mind, so he can show them what he means. He does this with the help of some strangely shaped objects.