Why don’t you just quit?

 
 
 

Purpose

“WHY DON’T YOU JUST QUIT?” is a critical virtual reality game. The main character is a young addict on the way to a job interview. The aim of the design is to create an uncomfortable physical, mental, and emotional situation for the player in VR. The objective of the game is to get “yourself” to the job interview, but the system will make it increasingly difficult because they will not be capable of coping with the physical discomfort created by withdrawal. Thus creating a game that cannot be won.

We attempt to create a space for reflection and understanding and motivate our approach to other’s lives with a stronger sense of empathy, creating awareness for the difficulties many live in trying to overcome addiction. By removing personal exclusions and stigmatization towards recovering addicts maximizes the likelihood of long-term recovery.

 
 
 
 

Process

This project was pitched to me and another designer and we liked it so we assembled a team (4 programmers and us 2 designers) and we worked for 10 continous hours during Gothenburg’s Startup hack 2019. Our team had 6 members (4 programmers and 2 UX designers). During this event we worked 10 hours continuously in order to achieve a finalized product.

We started this project by researching statistics and facts on overcoming addictions, after which we had a brainstorming session where we defined the symptoms to be shown and how they should represented in VR, the end game conditions, and the mapping of the controllers. We then defined the flow of the game with a journey map. I 3D modelled parts of the subway station, textured it, and added the sounds, to create the whole atmosphere. Meanwhile the programmers coded the capabilites of the objects and the user in the virtual world. We used experience prototyping to be sure the flow of the game was right and that the experience conveyed the message we wanted. We then presented the project.

 
 
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Methods Used

The main methods I used for this project were:

  • Research

  • Brainstorming

  • Journey map

  • Experience prototyping

 

Tools Used

The tools I used for this project were:

  • Unreal Engine 4