My Role / What I Learned

I worked in Unity and C# for years before beginning this project, but had only dabbled in VR. This was my first full VR app.

The project was initially going to focus on procedure, including a segment about how to properly place an NG tube. The first prototype included this and other physical interactions. However, we eventually decided that those types of interactions could better be handled by VR apps and real-world dummies that already existed. After much deliberation, the content experts and team at the Learning Games Lab agreed that the focus should be more on the actual dialogue between dietitian and patient, specifically when dealing with difficult or non-compliant patients.

With the educational goal decided, it was time to get to work. Our artists at NMSU did a great job on the character models, textures, and animations. I handled everything on the Unity and programming side. I also lent my voice to the character “Angry Craig” and the narrator, and even modeled some of the hospital room objects in Blender. I used a dialogue engine called “Ink” to set up the dialogue interactions based on the script provided by the UConn team. The rest of the programming was done in C#.

There were some difficulties during development. Particularly with script changes that required last minute animation changes, and when we decided to add hand-tracking support in addition to the motion-controller support. However, the modules ended up being effective and immersive.

Credits: Game Design, Lead Programmer, Audio, Voice Acting