Feedback from Zev Langer

Hi All,

Following yesterday's meeting, here's some feedback on how your space is shaping up.


General Layout

Signage for entry/exit points:
At the moment these are not easily identifiable and thus a source for confusion in the space. Decide on a visual signature for entries, portals and transitional spaces, and apply it consistently throughout the space. The user will then be able to orient themselves to these elements within the space, and keeping consistency with your visual signifiers will let you teach the user what to expect as they move around.

Movement experience:
Generally speaking the movement in the sound space seems ok, while the movement in the colour space feels clunky. In both cases I recommend a quick investigation of how physics and gravity volumes (brushes?) can be used to soften the user's motion in the space. If you decide to have the use walking in the coloured space, investigate how changing the surface properties of your environment can minimise the annoying footstep sounds. Using a fluid volume so the player is swimming might be another option.

Teleporter tubes (the things you fall through with the space odyssey textures):
You should try and get as much use as possible from these assets now that you have built them. They can be used as originally designed (to teleport the player around a space) but they also work as a transitional device, taking players between spaces. Decide which of the tubes you prefer for each situation, and set them up to provide a consistent experience, eg - teleporting within the sound space, you go through the line tube, telporting within the color space, you go through the ring tube, teleporting between spaces, you go through the hippie looking tube.

Entry and exit:
Solve how the user starts and ends the experience. If you are going to use the teleporter tubes as described above, you could shoot the player out of a one-way tube into the space, making sure that they start in the same type of tube that is used to transit between spaces. Use 1 way collision to hide the entry point.

Connection beween the sound space and the colour space:
It would help link the spaces together if there was some visual or sonic foreshadowing as you approach the teleports between the 2 spaces. This could be achieved with the texturing of the space, or through the placement of appropriate meshes and sounds


Sound Space

Portals/entries/exits: These are generally too small and hard to locate. Because you are allowing free movement in the Z axis there is a tendency to go above or below them and miss their presence. Widen the openings, particularly in the Z axis. Add some sort of visual element to draw the eye, maintaining consistency across the space (as discussed above).

Sound grid cube: People seem to not move up and down in this area. Try reorienting the grid as a diamond formation, or reshaping the space it sits in to emphasise the Z axis. Add visual elements to draw the eye up and down as you move into the space.

Possiby this area could be expanded, and the nodes placed further apart. This would to place more focus on each indiviual sound as it activates. Also some time might be spent tweaking the scale effect to taste.


Colour space

Differentiation from Sound space: The two spaces are actually quite similar. As a test, try inverting the texture used on the space itself, making the colour space predominantly white. This might heighten the effect of the colours.

Looping corridors: These are potentially dull to explore. Using physics to force the player through at high speed, and decorating them into a visually interesting ride, will improve these greatly. Maybe an experience similar to that of the teleporter tubes, but with a focus on 3 dimensional objects rather than texture detail would be interesting. Maybe these areas cold be replaced with a chain of teleporter tubes.

Rising block area:
This is cool, but it would be good to climb the structures. Try lightening the gravity so the user can jump up each tier.


Priority List

for getting the above into your environment.

Class A - this is stuff without which your design is incomplete, or the space is going to feel broken.
1: Player start and end
2: Teleporter tube linkups
3: 'attract' details for entry/exit/doorways/resize of portals in sound space

Class B - Important, but not a showstopper

1: Looping corridors in Colour space
2: gravity/jumping tweaks in rising block interactive area
3: general adjustments to movement dynamics

Class C - Less critical graphical and audio issues

1: Minimisation of sfx inherited from unreal (footsteps etc)
2: Adjustments to sound grid interactive
3: Visual connection between spaces

Class S - 'suggestions'

1: white colour space
2: polish (incidental audio and visual detail to liven up the space - emitters, sounds, etc.)


Finally, consider the fastest ways to add content to your world - recycle existing assets. Scale, re-orient and re-texture them to lessen the feeling of repetition. place subtle pieces of incidental audio to add mood to a space. With careful staging, It's possible to get a lot of mileage out of few assets.


Hope this is helpful, any questions, just reply to this email and I'll try and get back to you before Monday. Also please forward to Katie.

Cheers,

Zev