Gamified Exploration of Virtual Spaces 1

Gamified Exploration of Virtual Spaces

Lee Anne Opfer, Matthew Rhine, Brendan Vessels, Sarah Wisniowski
Milestone 3
Purdue University

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Since the milestone 2 we have an almost completed product. We have added an item
tracking radar into the game to help with finding some the objects. The people who will be
playing this game will most likely be people unfamiliar with the CGT department and there are
many doors that do not have any purpose with the department (such as the bathroom, supply
closets, and even people who do not belong to the department but have an office on the third
floor. We found that adding a tracker into the game would help them attain the trophies a lot fast,
since we will be having around 30 trophies to collect. Along with adding the a tracker to help the
player find some of the objects we have fixed the pick up glitch that was happening in our
game. Before, the player would walk into the object (ideally that would pick- up the object and
put it in the trophy case that we have set up) and they were faced with two problems: 1. They
would not be able to pick up the object at all or 2. the player would pick up the object and then
the game would crash and the player would not be able to exit out of the provided text or even
move at all.
We have added more models into the game that have will represent each faculty member
and path that they teach whether it is animation, gaming, VPI, and BIM. We even have model for
the SIGGRAPH store and for the CGT front desk. We chose this method for our game based on
the psychology theory of using spatial and episodic memory to help the player retain information
about the CGT department. This theory states a person can use a memory short cut to retain
information if they assign the information to an object and put it in a mental room to come back
later to gain the information. One of the literature we have be looking at comes from a study
done by Neil Burgess, Eleanor A Maguire, and John OKeefe . They have done extensive
research on this subject and have great knowledge on how spatial memory effects on the
hippocampus.

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This is one of the models that we are using for this game. This is a model of G-man, he is project
that you will do in the animation and gaming path. The player will be able to find this object, and

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collect it, in Raymond Hassans office because is one of the professors who teaches animation,
modeling, and gaming.
We have realized that there are normally at least two professors that teach the same
subject, so if there are two professors who teach in the same path field in the department we will
give them two different models that pertain to the same field. For example, there are two web
development professors in the CGT department. One professor as the model of the mouse clicker
that someone would see on the screen of the computer. The other professor in the same field as
the model of the Earth with WWW attached it to represent the world wide web.
We have also updated the mapping layout of our game. In the original file of the game
that we received anything to the right of the elevator in the third floor hallway was non-existent,
knowing the BIM department was down that way, we added that hallway and created rooms to

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house the objects that are related to BIM

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This is another model for our game, it is for BIM since their field of study is the construction of
building also the material that go into the building such as electricity and even the plumbing that
goes into the building.
Another feature that was added in the game was new cinematics to help explain to the
player what is happening at the beginning of the game when the player hits start on the main
menu. The main menu is also been added so the player can, start the game. One of the cinematics
that was added is Purdue Pete that come on the screen to explaining to the player essentially
what their objective is in the game.

Purdue Pete is hand drawn in these scenes because it cut down on time and resource while still
conveying to the player the essential information they need while playing the game. These scenes
with Purdue Pete are also locked so the player cannot simply press a button and skip over this
dialogue. In fact, any of the text that we provide to the player in the game cannot be skipped over
because all the text is essential for either how to play the game or learning about the department
from the game.

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The image above show the other important feature we added to the game, where the player will
spawn and can exit the game. When we first got the game file, the player spawned right by
Whittinghills office. With the basic narrative that is in the game, made more sense to start at the
elevator, we also thought if someone had never been to the department before then their first look
would be that area regardless if they took the stairs or the elevator. There also needed to be a way
to exit the game, because we are going to put a timer on the game, giving the player 15 minutes
to complete the game. We wanted to have a way that if the player completed the game before the
15 minutes have expired they would be able to exit the game.
Also in the picture above one can see Emblems with a counter on the end of it. That is
the HUD we added in the game so that the players will know how many trophies they have
collected. Once a player collects a trophy and learns the information, the trophy will be added
to the trophy case we have created. The player will be able to go the case and look at all the
models that is connected with each department, seeing these models again might help reinforce
the information they learn when they originally collected the model.

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In the final update for our project we have conducted the first part of our data analysis.
We had 20 students volunteers to do a knowledge assessment of the CGT department by first
giving them a pre-test with questions about the department (all the information can be found
directly on the website), we then had them look through the website, allowing them plenty of
time to feel that they had retained the necessary information about CGT and then gave them a the
same test we gave them at the start, with the same questions, to see if they are learned or gained
anything new about department. Finally we gave them a three question survey about if they
learned anything and if they were entertained by this activity. We will take that data a run it
through a program that allows to gain the stats on the information we gathered and compare it to
data we will collect from people playing the game.
The only things we need to finish is getting the game to work with the oculus rift, finishes
placing the models, and finish up the last of the testing to compare the data. We plan to have all
these finished by November 17 at the latest.

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Reference Page:
Burgess, N., Maguire, E. A., & O'Keefe, J. (2002). The human hippocampus and spatial and
episodic memory. Neuron, 35(4), 625-641.