Nian - A Oculus VR Game
My Roles
Game Programmer & Narrative Designer & Co-producer
Platform
Unity + Oculus Rift
Nian is a VR interactive experience on the Chinese New Year’s Eve. The guest will meet the kind and wise grandma and celebrate this special day as every kid does in China.
Contributions
As the game programmer:
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Implemented gameplay logic of mini-games
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Integrated character animation using Timeline
As the narrative designer:
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Wrote story script
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Designed the house and village level
Design and Implementation
The game is composed of three mini-games:
Dumpling making
The player uses two controllers to make dumplings in three simple steps.
I've also written a blog about the cooking simulation games that mention the design of this mini-game. Check it out here.
Lucky money catching
The dumplings are served to all relatives. As they enjoying the dinner, they throw the player lucky money. And the player needs to keep controllers close to catch them.
Nian fighting
Nian's roaring and attacking the village. The grandma leads the way and guides the player to use the firecracker to scare away Nian the Monster.
Map
The idea of the game level is to give the players a brand new view of this village as the game progresses.
That is, at the beginning of the game, the player is in the house, facing the dumpling table and listening to the NPC's instructions about the first mini-game. The player is expected to focus in the front.
Then after making dumplings, the NPC will lead the player's attention to the dinner table, which gives the players a larger view of the room interior design and introduces more NPCs for the next game. The second mini-game requires a larger space for movement. So the player feels free to move inside the house.
Finally, when the monster roars outside, the NPC will walk to the previously closed door and walk out, which leads the player to a village view.
After defending the monster, beautiful fireworks will be a reward for the player.
