CataclysmVR
CatacylsmVR is a virtual reality experience that recreates the asteroid impact of 65 million years ago and the destruction of the dinosaurs.
ROLE: Experience Designer, VR Developer, Sound Design
TIMELINE: 4 weeks
SKILLS: UX Design, Unity
TEAM: Dylan Dawkins & Maya Pruitt
Through virtual reality can we experience the unwitnessed past?
BACKGROUND
Though humans did not exist during the age of dinosaurs, scientific evidence has proven their existence as well as their demise. While working with Dr. Michael R. Rampino, professor of Biology and Environmental Studies at NYU, on our project Mass Extinction, we became fascinated by Dr. Rampino’s visceral descriptions of what the Cretaceous-tertiary extinction would have felt like.
CataclymVR focuses on immersive storytelling to create the feelings of a cataclysmic event
RESEARCH & IDEATION
Based on our research, we decided that our world-building would be centered around the initial impact of the catastrophic asteroid.
STORYBOARDING: MAPPING THE NARRATIVE
Drawings by Maya Pruitt
User flow diagram
CHARACTER DESIGN
We imagined the player to have the perspective of a shrew-like creature (the mammalian ancestor that survived the K-T extinction). This character drove several of our design choices, such as starting and ending the experience in a shelter/burrow.
DEVELOPMENT
We set goals for the experience and found creative solutions during our development phase.
SOUND DESIGN
I focused on spatial sound for this project to enhance realism. Specific audio clips and sound volumes were triggered by the player’s distance from certain objects in the scene. For instance, T-rex had wide spatial sound, so that players could hear its deafening roar from anywhere in the scene. Velociraptors, however, roar only within close contact (see image below).
The sound of impact overtakes any other audio in the piece and comes unexpectedly in order to create an intense jarring effect.
Screenshot of sound work in Unity. When the player is within the blue outlined domes the sound volume for each object is loudest. This shows the difference in spatial range between the T-Rex and the Velociraptor.
FINAL PRODUCT
User reactions were very positive. Our experience certainly felt immersive, and the surprise of the asteroid impact caused physical jumps and even bursts of laughter! Users often wanted to play again to see both outcomes of the narrative. In the future, we would like to add more scenes to illustrate other phases of mass extinction that Dr. Rampino described, such as: fires, clouds of dust causing complete darkness, and impact winter – a desolate landscape once the dust settles. However, the story would only continue if you survive each round. Could you outlive cataclysm?