Project Overview

This project aims to bring a shared, table top gaming experience to old friends and anonymous gamers alike by placing them together in a virtual space and providing them with card games and board games built upon a common infrastructure.

The full vision of this project would see virtual spaces exist between 1-16 players. Gamers would be able to select a game and enter a themed environment suitable for the game they are playing. Examples include a casino for poker / blackjack, a tree stump by a river for chess or a warm living room for Dungeons and Dragons.

As a commercial idea the full product could either have players joining for free and being able to play a few games with additional game engines being sold separately or the game could have a simple and a pro version, where the pro version allows technical gamers to script their own games using the game board toolkit.

 Game Jam Prototype Plan

The prototype would aim to present the idea with a relatively simple game such as checkers or maybe poker. The following milestones are goals for the prototype.

27 April: By this point it should be possible for multiple users to enter the game space using Oculus Rift. The initial game space will consist of an open room with a table and four chairs surrounding it. Players will be static, but should be able to look around the room and chat to each other.

4 May: I envision the initial prototype to be feature complete by this stage (if buggy) where players should be able to select their seat at the table and play the simple board game in front of them. If progress is good, this will be poker. If progress is slow, this will be checkers! Controls at this state will require a Bluetooth controller / use of the touch pad on the Gear VR.

11 May: The final week will involve adding polish, fixing bugs and ensuring that the app runs on the Gear VR (as opposed to the Oculus VR). It is intended to move controls during this phase to an almost hands-free system where, if the user looks at specific “hot spots” for 2-3 seconds then a popup menu will appear to the right of that item with “Select / Cancel” options that also respond to visual pointing. This control scheme may not work and the final prototype might require a gamepad but it is planned to have this feature.

 Pros

• Player is static during game play, lending itself well to a mobile experience.
• Limited environment so high quality possible.
• Should provide a strong social experience.
• Generic system for multiple games.
• Poker is popular!

  Cons

• Networking / VOIP.
• “Head-tracking menu” might be clunky, requiring a gamepad.
• Each game is a separate “mini project”.
• Niche audience.

Built With

• unity