BOGO
Quest, Quest 2
UE4
The vision for Bogo changed several times over the course of development. The project went from a tech demo to a multi-day, retentive app, and ultimately to a one-sitting experience.
Design on this project was heavily constrained:
Localization wasn’t in scope, so UI had to avoid text and rely on diagetic affordances as much as possible.
A the game included a roomscale environment that scaled to the player’s defined guardian; the VR space could be quite large, but according to data about average VR space, it was more likely to be on the smaller side. We couldn’t clutter the space with too many 3D objects.
Bogo needed to be able to traverse around and through the player’s space—another reason we couldn’t compromise the play area with props (UI or otherwise.)
Bogo was a great case study in guiding user attention in a VR experience; ultimately design leveraged strategically-placed visuals and spatialized audio to help lead people through a day with Bogo.
The original pitch was that Bogo would be a retentive, multi-day experience. We needed to message the idea of a player’s bond with Bogo across days. This relief concept was inspired by Aztec calendars and was to be displayed on the floor of the playspace.
More variations on an upright calendar. Unfortunately, given that the game’s playspace was adapted to fit the player’s drawn guardian boundary and Bogo needed to locomote through the space, we couldn’t incorporate too many 3D obstacles.
Explorations for an unused diagetic save slot system. I really enjoy the idea of tactile UI for simple VR experiences, especially one as whimsical as Bogo.
Bogo includes a set of minigame activities that were met with a similar challenge: the UI had to be diagetic and avoid text. We also needed an affordance to begin the challenge. An early thought was a gong.
Other explorations around challenge UI.
Explorations around another activity: cooking food for Bogo. How do we prompt players to use the cooking items appropriately?
More cooking exploration, along with recipe hints.
Through research, I found players’ attention was reliably focused on Bogo and that we should leverage that for communicating her needs.