Slaters

Slaters - An open-world room-scale VR game...

An open-world room-scale VR game.

Setting:

Dystopian future. After decades of environmental neglect, humanity is forced to live within the confines of sealed-off biosphere cities. A subculture of rebellious youths (Slaters) have found a way to hack utility drones (Slates) , so that they can remotely escape their claustrophobic purified cities. Using their modified Slates, they roam the ruined abandoned cities for pride (tagging/graffiti), bragging rights (artifact collection and leader board advancement), and better gear (Slate mods), all of this from the relative safety of their homes.

In game, the player’s character is virtually represented as a materialized hologram powered and generated by their Slate. This first-person hologram is displayed as an amorphous, genderless, semi-transparent humanoid. Having mass, the materialized hologram can hold things (controllers/tools) and carry things (inventory). The Slate and its materialized hologram are the natural technological evolution of the modern-day quadcopter drone. Piloted remotely and experienced virtually, they provide the ultimate in telepresence by allowing their users to physically interact with their remote locations.

Technology:

This game will recommend the use of a Wii Balance Board, but it will not be required. The Balance Board can be used in one of three possible configurations:

With the Wii Balance Board synced via Bluetooth with the gaming computer
With the Wii Balance Board as a prop, being used as a standing platform only
With no Wii Balance board in the player’s physical environment, the Slate will be represented in-game only

For configurations 2 and 3, inverse kinematics, along with the HMD’s position will be used to determine lean direction. While hovering, the player will be required to stand in/on a 20x13 inch (50x33 centimeter) space, which makes determining lean direction very reliable.

The Slate:

The Slate (Wii Balance Board) sits in the exact center of the play space. A digital representation is provided in game. While the dimensions and contours match the actual board, the similarities in appearance end there. The Slate is represented in the game as a futuristic/minimalistic quadcopter-like hover board. Logistically it solves the problem of navigating large spaces, while allowing/encouraging the player to step off and explore smaller areas. Players then return to their play space’s center, hop on their Slate, and continue their exploration.

In game, Slates are leashed to the player’s dominant hand controller by a single glowing retractable wire, similar to a modern day boogie board leash. As the player steps off the Slate and walks away, the leash will lengthen and glow. The farther the player gets from the Slate, the brighter the leash will glow, and an angry hum (like an electric line) will intensify. The electric hum and the leashes tension will be felt through the controller’s haptics. As the player preforms actions with the non-dominant hand’s controller, a leash arch jumps across to also provide power to that device. This leash ‘linking’ is also felt in that controller.

The Slate’s leash is a lifeline while exploring the wasteland. It provides power to the player’s materialized hologram. If the player exceeds the leash’s bounds, the leash’s connection breaks, the hologram loses its power source and begins to destabilize. As the leash breaks, its snap will be felt through the controller’s haptics. When this happens, the Slate will pulse in the radiant glow of its hazard lights and a pleasant voice, emanating from the Slate, will run through a countdown alarm and urge the player to return. If the player does not return to an appropriate distance, so that the leash can reattach, their hologram will dematerialize and their Slate will have to construct a new materialized hologram. Any items/inventory stowed on the materialized hologram will be dropped. A blank square wire mesh representing the play space will appear and the player will be required to return to the Wii Balance Board and wait for the hologram reconstruction to complete. Upon reconstruction, the view will fade back in and the player will find themselves back on the Slate in their last location.

When the player steps onto the Slate, a HUD displays its status: power levels, damage, etc. Powering on the Slate requires unlocking the Slate’s anti-grav by pressing the left controller’s button while simultaneously pressing/holding the right controller’s button. This archives the bare minimum default hover of approximately three feet. Initially all Slates will only be capable of this default hover. Landing is achieved in a similar manor, first lock the anti-grav, with the left controller, then power down by also pressing the right controller’s button.

Directional movement is achieved by leaning on the Wii Balance Board. Leaning forward or back will cause the player to travel in those directions. While leaning left or right will cause the player to rotate. Leaning both forward and to the side simultaneously will allow for controlled steering. An unmodified slate will maintain the equivalent of 3 mph with a slight lean and 5 mph with a more dramatic lean.

Crouching while hovering is also possible and will be crucial in order to get under some obstacles.

Slate Modification:

By exploring the ruined cities, additional equipment can be found to modify/personalize the Slate. These modifications will degrade over time and require maintenance with found scrap parts and tools. Hover height, speed, obstacle assist, phase shifters, search lights, camouflage, trackers, sensors, attracters, traps, weapons and sprayers for tagging are just some of the possible modules. While there will be a large assortment of modules and module grades, there will be a fixed number of module slots and a limit on power allotted for the modules. Some modules will require less power and allow for more module diversity, while higher power modules will be limiting in this regard.

Many locations will simply be inaccessible unless the appropriate module is added to the Slate. For example, an obstacle assist module will be required for navigating the stairs of multi-floor buildings. Hover boosters will be handy for getting to rooftop locations. Door busters can be used for getting through locked doors. While Phase Shift modules will be required for city-to-city transit.

Modifying the Slate will require access to an unoccupied garage. There are no home bases. No chests or storage lockers. The player can only carry a certain amount of inventory (parts/tools, artifacts) on their materialized hologram. So if they find something they want, they’ll have to take it to a garage for crafting, before someone else or a policing drone takes it from them. Any module that they add to their Slate, or tools they add to their controllers, will be theirs for as long as it lasts or is maintained and cannot be stolen by another player.

Player Representation:

The Slate powers the player’s materialized hologram. The hologram is always displayed with some degree of shimmering semi-transparency. When the player is off the Slate their hologram becomes more transparent and their form more diffuse. The opposite is true when the player is back on the Slate. When on the Slate, we know the position of the player’s feet, hands, and head, so we can telegraph the body’s position with more accuracy. This is achieved through inverse kinematics, which works quite well when the feet are in a fixed position.

The hologram’s “helmet” can be hacked to change its appearance. By default the helmet will be similar in shape/style to a motorcycle helmet, with a thin glowing horizontal line across the eye line and a similar vertical line down the center to help telegraph gaze direction. Helmet hacks can be unlocked and installed as the player gains Street Cred. Street Cred is gained through tagging, possessing artifacts and returning found items/artifacts. Slate decals will also be unlocked through Street Cred gains.

A side note on Street Cred. There is no direct economy in the game. Street Cred gains unlock decorative items, such as helmets hacks and Slate decals. All other useful items (modules/tools/parts) must be found/looted from the ruined cities. However, the only way to progress through the leader boards is through Street Cred gains.
Helmets are actually just denser holographic matter used to protect the materialized visual and auditory sensors in the “head” of the hologram. Over the years hacks have been introduced to reshape this matter into different non-standard forms.

Tagging/Graffiti:

All gameplay will be on multiplayer servers. As the player explores the cities they’ll find paints of various colors. If their Slate is equipped with a sprayer module, they’ll be able to tag the city. The larger the player’s tag, the more exposed it is, and the longer the tag remains unmodified, the more Street Cred a player is rewarded over time. If another player modifies the tag in any way, the Street Cred gains are stopped.

While tagging, the Leash changes color to match the selected paint color. The player will control the flow with the dominant hand’s trigger button, while controlling the spread/width with the thumb pad. Paint color selection will be performed with the non-dominant hand’s controller, and color availability will be based on the player’s inventory. Phosphorescent paint, while rare, will be highly sought after as it can be seen in the darkest locations (storm drains, etc) and during the night and thus earns the most Street Cred.

Exploration:

Each Slate is equipped with two multi-functional tools. By default the non-dominant hand’s controller comes with a short range (15-foot) scanner. The scanner projects a visor which can be looked through. When it locates an item, the item is outlined in the scanner’s visor. For instance, if a useful piece of scrap is found in a desk drawer, the player would see it outlined in the scanner’s projected visor, but only on the visor. If the item is desirable, the player would lock onto the item with the scanner tool. They would then use the other default tool, the Attracter (the controller in their dominant hand), to pull the item to them. The Attracter is strong enough to pull an item right through its container. It does this by first destabilizing/dematerializing the material between the item and the Attracter and then attracts it, like a magnet, to the device. Some items may be locked in protective cases, which the Attracter can’t pull items through. In these instances, the protective cases will have to be opened/defeated with tools constructed by the player while in a garage.

In addition to equipment (tools, spare parts, scrap metals, etc ) artifacts will be spread throughout the cities. While they will be of no practical use, these relicts (toys, CDs, comics, phones, etc) can award the player Street Cred depending on the rarity of the item, and the duration that its held in the player’s inventory. These artifacts will compete for space in the player’s inventory with the more ‘useful’ items a player can carry back to a garage. The rarest of artifacts will be the hardest to find and the most sought after. Unfortunately rare artifacts also draw the most attention, as they will show up as being possessed by the player in the leader boards. However, artifacts do not generate Street Cred or show up on the leader board until they are assessed by the artifact scanner in a garage. After scanning, the player can choose to discard the item, or keep it in their inventory.

While exploring, the player will have to take precautions against other players as well as police patrol drones. Other players will be after the player’s loot while police drones will being trying to put an end to the looting/tagging by disabling and impounding the player’s Slate. There will be counter measures for both. For instance, if another player tries to steal the player’s loot, they can try to escape based on the attacker’s perceived modules. For instance, if the attacker is flying, they won’t have the obstacle avoidance for indoor stair navigation. Or if the attacker is approaching extremely fast, along the ground, they may not have hover boosters for gaining height, so the player may be able to escape vertically. If panicked and the player has a phase shifter module, they can immediately jump to a different city. (This will result in disabling the Slates, and instantly de-materializing the holograms, of any nearby Slaters–friend or foe. This also has the adverse affect of inflicting minor damage to the modules installed on the player’s Slate, which would result in requiring maintenance sooner.)

The Garage:

Garages will be scattered throughout the city. The smaller, harder to reach, more inaccessible garages will be the most sought after. The larger, more obvious garages will likely be hotspots for thieves looking to take other players’ items before they’re able to get in.

Once in a garage, the player is safe, as a garage can only be occupied by one player at a time. The player’s items/loot can be dumped onto a table for crafting/scanning. The garage is equipped with a transmat beam, which is recessed into the ceiling and activated by a button on the table. Discarded items can dumped into a transmat sink where they’re dematerialized and added to the player’s Street Cred. Artifacts can be scanned and assessed for value and then discarded or returned to the player’s inventory. Tools are combined/crafted on the table and added to the controllers. Slate modules are also combined/crafted on the table, and then place on top of the Slate, where they get transmatted into the Slate. Adding modules to the Slate, even pre-built ones found in the city, can only be done through the use of the garage’s transmat beam.

Transmat: The immediate transmission/transportation of matter. As part of the background story, when unwanted items are dematerialized in the transmat sink, they are transported to a general pool for the Slater community to use. In game, the player is simply rewarded Street Cred for this exchange. When a tool is transmatted into one of the controllers or a module is added to the Slate, that item is transported and integrated directly into the device.

General Gameplay:

Sticking to the ground

Players can spend the entire game close to the ground, which provides better cover.

Focused on flying

Players who prefer to swoop in and jet off can tune their Slate for agile flight.

A need for speed

Players can modify their Slates to hit extreme speeds at the expense of some of the other luxuries like flying.

Indoor cats

Players can specialize on indoor exploration, with door-buster modules, stair climbers and weapons tailored for close quarters combat.

Thieving

Players can become master thieves, tracking other players, scanning their target’s inventory, and equipping their Slate with an Attracter of its own for thieving on the run.

Fine Arts

Players with an eye for art can earn Street Cred for their tagging efforts, unlocking custom swag and climbing up the leader boards in the process.

The Escapist

Players, with the right modules installed, can focus on exploration while making sure they always have a conflict-free escape plan.

Friends with benefits

Players, with the right modules installed, can hack policing drones and use them as bodyguards against other Slaters.

The Archaeologist

Players who are more Indiana than Solo can focus their efforts on “archaeology,” hunting down the rarest of rare artifacts.

Design Insights

Room Scale

It seems that often the focus/ideal in VR is to reproduce the science fiction of the Ready Player One’s Oasis. A fiction where someone can sit in the back of a van and actually feel like they’re a part of the VR world that they’re engaging with. In my mind, this fiction of a walking/running/jumping active avatar with a sitting player was fundamentally incongruous of the ideals of VR. This is why Room Scale VR is so appealing to me, and why I believe it needs a new fiction universe to set the standards of how VR should actually operate.

Unfortunately one of the problems with Room Scale VR is its limitation of the finite space of the room the player is physically standing in. How do you navigate larger VR spaces with these physical limitations? How can you encourage the player to return to the center of the Room Scale play space and keep them directionally oriented, regardless of their orientation within the VR space? How do you do this without taking them out of their VR Presence?

I intend to solve those those limitations with the introduction of the Slate. The Slate is designed with an obvious front and back, so the player always knows which way to stand on it and how to orient themselves. It is always in the center of the Room Scale play space, so players always return to center when getting back on it. The Slate’s leash has a plausible explanation within the fictional universe of why there are roaming restrictions, without directly mentally binding those restrictions to the physical limitation of their actual room.

Avoiding Nausea

By default an unmodified Slate’s max speed is the equivalent of 5 mph or a fast walking speed. The user is required to physically lean on the board for directional movement to occur. This physical movement, tied directly to an new/unknown vehicle (the Slate) helps to bypass nausea by leveraging the brain’s cause-and-effect learning. This along with the game’s gradual introduction of speed/height, through Slate modifications, allows the player to progress at their own pace, while eventually offering them the ability for dramatic/agile movement while on the Slate. Additionally, while on the slate, a hud overlay is presented with stats, maps and grids, resembling the type of display you might expect from a futuristic space sim cockpit. This, along with the separation of locomotion types: physically walking to explore smaller spaces, while hoping on a “vehicle” (Slate) to explore larger spaces is the key to nausea free Room Scale locomotion.

The Player’s Avatar

At the heart of the gameplay is a Slater: a rebellious citizen of one of the sealed-off biosphere cities, longing to explore the vast open spaces of the nearby ruined cities. This is obviously hazardous to do in person, due to changes/damage done to the earth’s environment. Slaters resort to exploring these cities through the use of a hacked Slate and its materialized hologram. Unfortunately for the Slaters, this has been made illegal due to rampant looting and tagging, and the law is enforced with policing drones.

The player takes on the role of one of these Slaters. A Slater operates the Slate and hologram remotely from their room, just as the player does. What the Slater looks like, what their rooms look like, is inconsequential, because all gameplay happens inside the wastelands of the city and is experienced and transmitted to the Slaters through their Slates and holograms.

This is done to pull the player into the experience, as they’re never forced to reconcile the differences between their gender or body type and the hologram’s gender neutral appearance. The player simply sees through the first person perspective of the hologram, while controlling its amorphous humanoid shape. Mental incongruities between limb appearance or movement are ignored by the mind because they are 100% aware that the limbs are not their own, or even human, and that they are acting in a degree as a puppeteer. This awareness allow the player to be pulled even deeper into the experience, because the plausibility of the hologram’s form or its movements are never in question. It’s something entirely new. We’re telling them how it looks and behaves, and they accept that as being the truth of the experience.

The player is also aware that the visuals are being routed from the hologram to the slate, and then transmitted to the player. This awareness allows for mental forgiveness of visual artifacts, such as the screen door effect, etc. In fact by introducing occasional artificial glitches, scan lines, and even auditory cracks and pops, the player will be more forgiving of the limitations of the hardware and more accepting of the game-world.

Player Ownership

The default for VR games should be multiplayer focused. However, player ownership is fundamental to engaging players in multiplayer environments. I achieve this through the Tagging mechanism, Artifact possession, Slate modifications, and un-lockable decorative items. Players will feel compelled to defend their tags. To find the out-of-the-way garages, perhaps tagging the inside of them and claiming them for their own.

Combat

As a general rule, people should not hurt other people in VR. For example, listen to the initial reactions of people who have played Sony’s game The London Heist and you’ll hear how uneasy most people felt after shooting at and killing the representation of another human being in VR. Even though the players knew that it was an NPC controlled by AI, they felt at their core morally compromised by the situation.

In retrospect ,I’ve heard others shrug this off as just another “thing” to adjust to, as we become familiar with the dynamics of VR gameplay. However, I’d argue that it’s a mistake to desensitize ourselves to these reactions. This is why I’ve completely separated the player from their holographic representation in the game. Additionally, any damage that can be inflicted is done to the Slate itself, not the hologram, which further separates the player from any moral dilemmas when engaged in combat. This is crucial to allowing combat to feel thrilling, terrifying, and exhilarating without the negative impacts of inflicting and receiving human-to-human injuries in VR.

Potential

I believe this game has the potential to set a standard for VR Room Scale open-world gaming. To redefine what we really want out of a VR experience. To reset our expectations of motion, travel and interaction within these worlds, so that the fictional representations of fully engaged stationary players are no longer the ideal.

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