This project is a speculative future design: building an imaginative virtual world and telling a story with Unity (game engine).
Brief description of the story setting/background: Because of human overuse, earth was destroyed and humans had to move to other planets. Years afterwards, a gallery is built by AI in the middle of the earth's dusty land. It documents and represents the history in the form of arts. As humans start to come back and visit this place that used to be their home, they will be warned and frightened by sand's ability to bury civilization without a trace.
Team: Daisy Lu & Suri Li
itch.io link: https://daisyslu.itch.io/gallery-in-the-dune
unity project (.zip file): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Bj9rDBWQL92Kj1GLMX7TnTCzDTgJJjdt/view?usp=sharing
Video Documentation:
Our plan is to create a large gallery that is round-shaped, open-air, and centering on a water pond that can provide moisture in the drought. In the center of the gallery & middle of the water pond, there is a pyramid tower - everything is built surrounding it. Sunlight comes from the open top, small floating light balls will be the only light source in the evening using solar energy, and there are regularly-spaced openings on the side that allow people enter and leave whenever they want. We will be creating the scene/interactions from the first-person, visitor point of view as he/she walks in the desert, enters the gallery and looks at each art piece.
Pyramid (a symbol of dessert) as the striking architect in this gallery
Overall exterior of the gallery
Artworks are displayed inside the rounded architect, on the walls
The visitor/player starts at the outside of the gallery building (able to see the outlook in the desert, sand, and sky), and by pressing the forward key they will start moving into the building. They can navigate using keys and mouse, change direction and go around the gallery however they want.
Information displayed in the gallery completes the narratives - why are we in the desert? what had happened in the past? how is art appreciated in this world? what artworks are being displayed?
Without much constraint, visitor will have the freedom to view it all or just a portion of it. This world is relatively large-scale, with lots of details and objects. And the unique construction of the gallery (water, pyramid, lights, etc.) also serves to convey and complement the mood & the meaning.
This set of artworks depict the earth history, from golden age to buried dust
As for triggers and colliders, we made several sound interactions by the visitor's movement. When the visitors reach around the water pond (which is at the center of the gallery), they will hear the sound of water flow. When they walk near the pyramid tower, they will hear the sound of wind. During nighttime, when the light-balls are triggered to release from the water pond, they will also hear a "rolling-ball" type of sound, which sounds like starting a machine.
Possible next steps
1) Add more UI, e.g. scrollbar, buttons, and triggers
2) more consistent artworks that relate to our theme/story
3) more interactivity with objects in the scene
4) integrate our storyline/background information into the scene better
