Get Out of the Dollhouse

A  virtual reality gameplay that follows a fluid storyline, a cartoon-like CG aesthetic, and spatial audio to create an immersive experience between 360 video and 3D virtual reality space.

Team + Role

This student group project was completed as part of the Atelier course at OCAD. My team consisted of Mahnoor Shahid, Chris Philippi, Chloe Lindsay, and myself. I acted as a 3D asset designer, a 3D video and audio editor, screenwriter and director.

The Project Challenge

"Design and build a virtual reality experience using Unity and incorporate 360 video".

The Goal

How might we design a 3D space that resembles a dollhouse, so that players immediately understand where they are located upon being trapped?

The Project Summary

Get Out of the Dollhouse is a virtual reality gameplay that follows a fluid storyline, a cartoon-like CG aesthetic, and spatial audio to create an immersive experience between 360 video and 3D virtual reality space.

You find yourself trapped inside of your daughter’s dollhouse after failing to provide her with enough attention when she asked you to play with her. Now, you are in need of getting your child’s attention to escape. You find ways to make loud noises and sounds inside the cramped space by interacting with toys around you. However, you soon discover the only way you can leave is by simply unlocking the front door with the correct key.The moral of the story is to appreciate the time a parent has with their child. The experience inside the dollhouse is meant to bring curiosity and excitement, as the player enthusiastically interacts with the world around them and watches the rest of the story unfold outside.

Research

With the idea of designing a dollhouse, our team wanted to research features that would allow us to achieve an incredibly realistic aesthetic. We wanted it to be evident that you were trapped inside of a dollhouse and not simply an animated house. During our research, we learned that many dollhouses have:

Common Dollhouse Features:
  • Furniture as a part of the wallpaper & stickers on items to add detail
  • Disproportionately sized furniture toys
  • Do not always have stairways to move to a different floor
  • Have door/drawers/cabinets that do not open or close
  • Bright and unrealistic/uncommon colours for objects (for example, pink fridge)

The Plot Outline

Outlining the plot is necessary to deliver this most accurate game and story-telling experience.

Start Screen
  • Practice with controllers
Scene 1 (360 Video Introduction)
  • The 360 video is in the POV of the mother
  • Mother ignores her daughters request to play with her
  • CUT SCENE
Scene 2 (VR World/ Bedroom)
  • Mother wakes up in the Dollhouse, goes to the balcony
  • Voiceover: mother yelling for help to get out
  • 360 video: Daughter looking around for her mother
Scene 3 (Reading Room)
  • Mother learns she needs to make noise
  • Grabs and throws objects
  • 360 video Outside: Cat on the table
  • Grabs the key (first correct key)
Scene 4 (Living Room)
  • 360 video: older sister comes downstairs and plays with the daughter
  • Mother realizes she needs to find a way to escape
  • Player tries the keys beside the door (wrong keys)
Scene 5 (Kitchen)
  • Voiceover: Mother realizes it is all her fault, she has to spend more time with her daughter
  • Objects and drawers can float around in zero gravity
  • 360 video: older sister starts vacuuming
  • Mother grabs the key (second correct key)
  • CUT SCENE
Scene 6 (Outro 360 Video)
  • Mother finally is able to understand that she needs to make time for her daughter
  • When launched back into the real world, she apologizes and agrees to play with her daughter
A storyboard demonstrating the experience in each VR room

Tutorial Imagery

As a quick tutorial for players, we added three images on one of the walls that demonstrate controller instructions

UI is a little more difficult in VR, therefore, we mostly used feedback dialogues that implicitly instruct the player on what to do further. Since switching from HTC Vive to Oculus Quest, we felt it was important to include controller instructions for both VR headsets that were somehow integrated in the game world. ​Hence, the instructions for the Quest were displayed in the start screen and the inscriptions for the Vive were on the walls of the dollhouse.

Distant grab, grab and rotate and teleport
demonstration of holding button and triggers to take action

Final Dollhouse Build

Screenshot images of the interior dollhouse build in Unity, along with assets, designed with the desired aesthetic.

Dollhouse Kitchen
Dollhouse Desk
Dollhouse bedroom bird's eye view
Dollhouse living room
Full dollhouse open face view

Final Product

The final prototype was created using Unity.

***Note: due to COVID and lockdown procedures, our team had to step in as actors to the complete project.

Conclusion and Reflection

Overall, we are extremely proud with the outcome of our project given the circumstances of Covid. I believe that we achieved the exact aesthetic that we set out to create. Reflecting on the project there are a few points that I would like to touch on...

Sizing

At the beginning of this project, we were concerned about the actual size of the dollhouse space, in terms of the experience walking through in VR. We actually believe that it complemented the experience well, as dollhouses tend to be condensed when closed up and rooms are never spacious in general.

Communication/ Pivoting

In the middle of our project, the world shut down, and not only did we no longer have access to the best computers for rendering, but we didn't have physical access to each other. Our team immediately had to work from home, unaware of what was even happening academically. Our roles began to blur a bit more, and we executed more of a "all hands on deck" approach to complete the project. I never intended to work with the 360 video; however, upon lockdown, I had the camera, so naturally it became my task.

User Experience in Motion

A major challenge working with VR, is to limit potential motion sickness for a user. As our first time working with the VR and Unity, we are pretty proud of how it turned out but would ultimately like to explore further steps that we can take as designers to limit shaking and excessive movement.