Mixed Reality

MSG Sphere
Madison Square Garden Entertainment, Interactive
Burbank CA, 2022

Genre: Location Based Entertainment, Multiplayer, Mobile
Platform: Unreal for large format screen, mobile
My role: Game Design Student Associate
Tools I used: Unreal Engine, Photoshop
Mentor: Anthony Russo

Description: MSG Sphere at The Venetian is a sphere-shaped music and entertainment arena being built in Paradise, Nevada. The sphere-shaped venue will have a capacity of 17,500 and feature the world's largest LED screen. My team focuses on creating large-scale multiplayer interactive experiences that could take place in the Sphere.

Challenges:

Designing a multiplayer experience for location based entertainment
Designing for a new platform using existing technologies

As a game designer

Made a proof of concept of a feature for a large-scale multiplayer game designed for the MSG Sphere in Unreal Engine
Collaborated with the UI Designer and Art Director to design the narratives and the UI for the onboarding phase of the game
Storyboarded and pitched original ideas for the MSG Sphere
Collaborated with Software Engineers and Technical Game Designer to implement and tweak the haptic feedback feature on mobile devices in Unreal Engine
Participated in daily standups and reported my progress to the Producer
Coordinated with Game Designers and Software Engineers to set up and run internal playtests

It Takes Two Dogs!
CMU, ETC, Building Virtual Worlds
Pittsburgh PA, 2021

Genre: Co-op; Arcade
Platform(s): HTC Vive trackers, Unity
My role: Designer, 2D&3D artist, Producer
Tools I used: Maya, Substance Painter, Unity, Procreate
Team members: Bokang Wang, Chao Li, Eiko Qu, Nelson Nie, Xiao Han

Description: It Takes Two Dogs is a fun co-op game created in the time span of one week using the HTC Vive trackers. Two players will play a two-headed hotdog dog together to catch food that falls from the sky, meanwhile they have to avoid forks and knives that will hurt them.

Challenges:

Designing a Co-op game without networking
Rapid prototyping
Unfamiliar platform

As a producer, I kept things on track by reminding myself of the time limit and making sure the project is within the scope. I also collected feedback from playtesters.
As a game designer, I designed the theme and mechanics of the game. I also tweaked the mechanics with our programmers to make the game more fun.
As an artist, I created some assets including the two-headed dog. I also drew the background and the UI for the game.

Celestial
CMU, ETC, Building Virtual Worlds
Pittsburgh PA, 2021

Genre: coloring game, free form
Platform: Quest 2 VR
My role: Designer, 3D artist, voice actor for princess
Tools I used: Maya, Unity
Team members: Caitlyn Lenhoff, Kayi Ng, Max Cameron, Xiao Han, Tairan Gao

Description: Celestial is a free form coloring game that is made with Quest2 VR. In the game, the player helps the princess to color a small island with stars and bring the island back to life.This game is designed with the theme “feeling of freedom” in mind. Throughout the development, “naive" guests were invited to play without direct guidance or instruction. Our main goal was to create a little world where people are guided by their own intuition and make the world colorful.

Challenges:

Creating the feeling of freedom within the game
Creating surprises that players didn't expect
Teaching players to play the game and navigate through the story without using tutorials or texts.
Organizing playtest with native guest and collecting feedbacks throughout the development

As a game designer, I added elements of discovery and surprise to the game to make players more engaged in the experience.
As an Artist, I designed the environment and built 3D models that went into the environment. I also rigged and animated the bird that was designed as a surprise for the player.

Raft Away
CMU, ETC, Building Virtual Worlds
Pittsburgh PA, 2021

Genre: Story-based
Platform(s): Quest 2 VR
My role: Narrative designer, 3D artist
Tools I used: Maya, Substance Painter, Unity
Team members: Huijie Bao, Xiao Han, Tanvi Ganu, Tiange Zhou, Tongzhou Wang

Description: You are on a boat with your friend out in the ocean. Food is getting scarce, and your friend is getting sick. One day, your friend passes away, and you are starving…Raft Away is a survival game with a twist. It proposes one question to our player — if you have to eat your friend’s corpse to survive, would you do it? This short experience is created for the story round of Building Virtual Worlds. The goal of the team is to use the player's interaction with the world to drive the story.

Challenges:

Designing a short story-based experience in VR
Tackling the topic of the morality of cannibalism under harsh circumstances

As a game designer, I pitched the story to our team and designed the narrative of the game.
As an artist, I created the character model and several pieces in the environment and the respective textures. I also did some of the animation.

Sturm
CMU, ETC, Building Virtual Worlds
Pittsburgh PA, 2021

Genre: Arcade
Platform: HoloLens 2, Unity
My role: Designer, 3D artist
Tools I used: Maya, Unity
Team members: James Finkel, Jennifer Liao, Nolan O'Keefe, Xiao Han, Yifan Shan

Description: Sturm is a short, colorful, fast paced game that runs on Hololens2. The player is the god in this world. They have to put out the fire on the little elves’ home caused by the lightning and gray clouds. We used the hand tracking function of Hololens2 and developed the mechanics based around pitching and pulling the clouds.

Challenges:

Using real objects to enhance players experience in the virtual world
Creating the feeling of urgency for player to act and help the elves in the game
Indirectly guiding the players to learn the mechanics of the game

As a game designer, I designed the onboarding phase of the game. To start the game, players have to interact with a big cloud that acts as a start button. Players are asked to pinch and pull the button to start the game. During the process, players can learn the core mechanics without going through a tutorial or instruction.
As an Artist, I worked on modeling objects in the environment including the trees and the elves’ house. With the limited time we were given, I’m glad we were able to deliver something that's interesting and aesthetically pleasing.