DECO3801 is part 2 of the capstone studio course, and the third of the three core studio courses. This course required us to take project briefs from a different team in part 1 of the course, and spend the semester building a working prototype that would be presented in a public exhibit. My team wanted to take the opportunity to work on something more unique rather then the more traditional web-based applications we had worked on a lot in the past.

As such, the brief we choose was aimed at stress relief by combining the physical activity of smash rooms with the relaxing state of meditation, and used virtual reality (VR) technology as a way to provide this experience to as many people as possible. Due to time limitations, we obviously couldn’t create a product exactly as described in the brief. We had to pull out the most important features in the brief to include and change the concept slightly to be able to make a more feasible prototype. As such, SmashVR focuses much more on the smash room aspect of the concept while also including meditation as a feature to help the user calm down after a session before going back out into the real world. SmashVR features multiple levels reminiscent of real places, including Cabin in the Woods, Classroom and Office as well as multiple objects that you can smash through with a variety of tools.

We used Unity’s OpenXR development tools to create a game that should run on all mainstream VR headsets, but we tested it primarily on the Meta Quest 2. For this semester, I was responsible for the creation of the brand of SmashVR, including the logo, exhibit displays, presentations and video production. I also worked on the UI for the game, including the pause and start menu as well as being responsible for designing and building the Cabin in the Woods level which ended up being the first fully completed level that we demonstrated at the exhibit. This course was a great learning experience in developing for mixed reality applications, and the considerations needed in translating traditional 2D UI elements to a 3D space as well as learning more technical skills in Unity and game development.