Each year, Oculus Launch Pad supports promising VR content creators from diverse backgrounds with hands-on training and support, so they can iterate on their unique ideas and bring them to market. 2019 Launch Pad grant recipient Charuvit Wannissorn spoke with us about his involvement with Oculus Launch Pad and how it helped shape his career and the development of
Luna: Episode 1 - Left Behind, a 25-30 minute interactive VR story about an android and a little girl trying to survive an AI apocalypse - now available on App Lab.
If you’re interested in applying for our next Oculus Launch Pad session, watch for our open application announcement on the blog this Spring.
Congrats on receiving an Oculus Launch Pad grant! What was your Launch Pad experience like and how has your involvement made an impact on your career?
It's been a fun and exciting experience working with Oculus. Apart from the grant, I received technical support as well as the opportunity to connect with other people in the industry through Oculus events. The Oculus Launch Pad program has given me a chance to work full-time on my own project for the first time. It's great to be able to establish your own vision and create your own product.
What are your top tips for devs hoping to be more inclusive and reach a broader audience?
I think it’s always better to have a target audience in mind, but it’s also important to be mindful of accessibility. As a result, always consider alternative and/or easier ways to perform an action in the experience. This will be useful for not only people with disabilities but also people who are still new to VR.
Could you tell us about the core gameplay and what inspired you to create Luna?
The main interaction is talking to the characters, through speech recognition. I use speech options to guide the player through the story. What the player says will affect how the characters think and feel--and how the story is told. This might seem like reading the lines, but when you’re in VR, it feels like you’re actually talking to the characters, especially when they talk back to you!
As for the inspiration, I wanted to tell a story in VR with memorable characters. VR is just an emerging platform, full of new opportunities, and speech recognition is just one of the tools to make the experience novel.
Were there any important themes or messages you wanted to get across in your game?
It's about humanity. We’re all different and imperfect. There are tons of things the machines can do better than we can, and with AI and neurotechnology, the lines between the humans and the machines will become even more blurred. Then, how would you tell if someone is human? Are there qualities that belong exclusively to us? Are they good or bad? And should we judge someone by their appearance, their classification, or their actions?
Did you run into any major technical challenges? If so, how did you overcome those challenges?
Getting speech recognition to work nicely on a mobile device like Oculus Quest was a major challenge. It has to work offline so internet connection is not required. It has to process the audio continuously in real-time, so there is no end-of-speech wait time. Without good performance and good user experience, the feature is useless--a drop in frame rate or a delay in response from the character will break the player's immersion. I overcame the issues with a lot of googling and tinkering with the library.
What was the main inspiration for the art direction in Luna?
Being a solo developer, I had to stick with a stylized/cartoony look. However, I wanted to tell a story with a darker tone and more mature themes, so I developed the art style accordingly.
What did you learn from your experience playtesting the game?
Interactions that work well on other platforms may not be so intuitive in VR; therefore, it’s better to test the interactions with naive guests first. In addition, unless the player is taught how to do an interaction beforehand, they will stick with how they would do it in real life. If you can design the interactions to be as intuitive as possible, you can avoid unnecessary teaching.
What advice would you give to a developer looking to start building for VR?
If you’re a solo developer or a small team, always remember to “simplify”, “prioritize”, and “manage”. You will be spread too thin, with issues popping up in every department, so it’s important to keep the scope small, prioritize your tasks, and make the best of whatever resources you have.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our developer audience?
