Reality vs. Virtual Reality

In our second studio we were introduced to the idea of how important it is to understand perception and presence in order to create an unique experience with mixed-reality technologies and experienced with the basics of unity, a platform which allows game production more accessible and easier to conduct.

In order to get a better understanding of the concept, I compared the experience and strategies used in the game of my childhood, Temple Run 1 and 2.

Perception is how we understand the world around us, it's methods that allows us to gather information and process information. These are achieved by our senses including hearing, sight, touch, taste and smell. Games creates perception by playing around with these senses. Presence in games allows the player to be more immersed into the artificial world as it creates illusions that they are actually in the space.

Presence is more commonly used in VR games where everything that the user sees is artificial. Temple run is a great example where simple interfaces and techniques are used to create simple sense of presence and perception. The background of the game is a explorer who is the player stole a treasure from the monsters and is being chased. First of all visually it is in a 3D environment and the realism and details of the graphics is already building a sense of presence for the player. When the character trips it is accompanied by a small vibration on the phone, the sound of the monsters and seeing the monsters coming closer, this builds the tension by involving the sense of touch, sense of hearing and the sense of sight, small details like different methods of 'dying' are also presented with different experiences.

In my opinion the reason it became so popular is because how much attention they paid into the small details to enhance user experience with the limited technology phones can provide, It was also an interesting experience comparing what it's like when the sound and vibration property is muted to get a slight understanding of the experience presence and perception can bring to a game.

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For the second part of the studio we played around with the very very basics of Unity. There are so many possibilities that can be achieved, in fact, Temple run was a game created through Unity. I'm currently in the phase of getting my head around the interfaces and navigating through.

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Billinghurst, M. (2020). DES241 Designing Mixed Realities. MIXED REALITY TECHNOLOGY. [Lecture Notes].

Google Play. (2020). Temple Run. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.imangi.templerun&hl=en

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