Winter Solstice - Cozy Winter Group & Micro Experiences

Winter Solstice is a cozy mobile & VR hangout for reflection, grounding, and recharge. Explore the essence of the German Rauhnächte through gentle micro-experiences alone or together.

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My Inspiration

In Germany when it gets cold and the days get darker or sooner darker, we know it's Christmas Season soon. But we also know, especially in the southern part of Germany, near the alps, that we will prepare ourselves for the year ending. Doing and celebrating the twelve nights after Christmas. We call it Rauhnächte.

It's the time of the year when Frau Holle & the Perchten rushing through the land, bringing the snow and the wind. Also we say the veil of the world becomes be thinner. So we celebrate these nights after Christmas, for selfreflection, grounding, recharging and also letting go, making space for the new year and welcoming the new year. And for this, I always wanted to create a world where people can come together either on mobile or VR or both together. As I already implemented the Circle of Serendiptiy (& Tarot) and the Mindfulness Monday Meditations in another world, where we meet in VR and mobile as a mixed user experience. I especially wanted to create a special winter world. It should be cozy, quiet, snowy and relaxing. For coming together or as an experience on your own.

Impact

Winter Solstice offers a peaceful alternative to the stress and sensory overload many people feel during the holiday season. It gives users a gentle space to breathe, reflect, and reconnect with themselves no matter where they are or what device they use. By combining cultural tradition, mindful design, and accessible micro-experiences, the world supports emotional well-being, community connection, and a sense of ritual in a time of year that often feels overwhelming.

My Experience is build for mobile and VR. Not just mobile nor just VR because we meet all together also for the community circles. And here it is necessary that we can enter all through different devices.

What it does

You may enter the world with the goal to visit our Serendipty Circle, where we train our muscle of happiness. To Focus on the Good News and to spread the Good News also in order to meet mindlike people. But you maybe also enter because you have the goal to go through the Micro Experiences of the base Idea of the Rauhnächte: First you may digital clean your energy with a smudging flower stick. When you hold it into the flame it starts smudging. Reflect (Get a question like the question to end the year), to get a Tarot Advise (to ask the High Arkana), to choose a Chrystal Stone and get self love affirmaitons (depending on the stone's character: Rosequarz, feminine Energy & Selflove, Love or the Obisidian which stands for Protection. Later when the Rauhnächte are starting, I will put also every day another summary for the night. Because every night stand for a different topic and for the month of the other year. Additionally therer will be the opportunity to burn your wishes or let go thourgh the burning and release them to the universe in order to be fullfilled. Also I added a small advertising corner, for my cozy winter and christmas clothing, which I am designing with a lot of love and passion. My Fashion are timeless peaces which you can mix and match with my basis fashion collection. Just to fit into this cozy winter world.

This world should help you from the stressy Christmastime, to find a few minutes of relaxation, cozyness, and grounding. In an quiet cozy space.

How I built it

First I designed my architecture in Blender, textured it and baked everything, so that my lighting in the scene was preserved. I prepared everything, also the glass for impoting it to Blender. Then i put it all together trough the Horizon editor. Designing elements through the 2D to 3D and refining also my Tyepscript I did with help of ai. I also added my own generated handpan music for a cozy chilled envoirentment.

You may enter the world with the goal of visiting our Serendipity Circle, where we train our muscle of happiness, focus on the Good News, and spread positivity while meeting like-minded people. For this I created a rounded hangout area, near a crackling fire, surrounded by flickering candles. You can watch th snowfall and feel cozy inside. At my hangout area you hear the music, i did with suno, a paid music ai app - hearing some meditative handpans. And in the back there are my Micro-Experiences.

But you may also enter because you want to explore the micro-experiences inspired by the core idea of the Rauhnächte, by yourself.

First, you can digitally cleanse your energy with a smudging flower stick. When you hold it to the flame, it begins to smudge. Then you can reflect by receiving a question - for example, a question to help you close the year. You can get a Tarot reading by asking the Major Arcana. You can choose a crystal stone and receive self-love affirmations, depending on the stone’s energy: Rose Quartz - feminine energy & self-love Obsidian - protection

Later, when the Rauhnächte begin, I will add a small daily summary for each night, as every night represents a different theme and connects symbolically to one month of the coming year. Additionally, there will be the opportunity to burn your wishes - a letting-go ritual where you release them to the universe to be fulfilled.

I also added a small cozy winter & Christmas clothing corner, just to fit into the atmosphere of this winter world. This world is designed to help you escape the stress of the Christmas season and find a few minutes of relaxation, coziness, and grounding - in a quiet, gentle winter space.

Challenges I ran into

The most challenging part was programming the Tarot right, especially for mobile users. First I programmed it so that it just changes the textures on the main plane. This worked perfectly for VR. Sadly, while testing, I saw this doesn’t work for mobile. So I first resized the size and the MB for all the 22 textures, still struggling to show the texture change on mobile. I asked in different forums and got different ideas. All these ideas were like Greek to me. But I took the input and explained to the AI that it doesn't work for mobile and suggested the ideas. This helped the AI to build the script differently and not just change the textures. It made it change the textures as a plane object itself. The objects as a plane I copied before, and later, when I adjusted the script, I connected the objects to the script spots.

Finally it worked!! For VR and mobile! This was the most stressful job. But I solved it, and I am really proud to finally have a kind of "Tarot Oracle". Additionally, there is an explanation text on top, which was also tricky to position correctly. Also, my crystals should snap back to the base position. This is stuff you only see when you test it or let people test it, like with a small user experience.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I am so proud of programming all of this by "myself" with the help of AI, myself, and the Meta Editor. I am proud that my objects now have micro-experiences, and hopefully people will use them for themselves. I am proud that I ran into a challenge and was able to fix it! I think from my last entry until now, I learned a lot, which you can see in the design and the interaction of the world itself.

What I learned

I learned how to prompt correctly, use two AIs instead of one for the TypeScript, and that you can use the Meta AI Bot to double-check the script better than building it 100% alone with just one. I learned how to handle things for mobile vs. VR (the power behind it) and to stay strong in the goal to achieve it. And everything is possible! Just believe in yourself. It’s trying, failing, reworking, and accomplishing it. I also learned that textures for mobile need to be as small as possible without being blurry. And I learned to really test everything on mobile and VR, as well as on iPad and desktop. Of course, I learned that I still need to learn how to animate the cameras in order to show specific info bigger on mobile. This is the next step to develop my project and move further on.

What's next for Winter Solstice - Twelve Nights - Inner Reset

The next step is that I want to learn how to program an NPC Which could help like a mindful coach or guide through the different days of the Rauhnächte with different background informations. Additionally I would love to generate some outdoor "activity" or Build a Meditation Deck there too. Plus to generate goals to bring the people back in my world, so that the could earn some gadgets to use in the world.

Built With

  • affinity
  • blender
  • chatgpt
  • claudeai
  • metaai
  • metaeditor
  • suno
+ 37 more
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