Mymxie Home

“Mymxie Home” is an VR interactive user experience of a low-income student fighting against an army of mice at home.  

[ 8 MONTHS THESIS PROJECT]

2 - 4 months of conceptualizing and design: delivered physical prototypes and user feedback

4 months of production: delivered twine prototype and minimum variable product in Unity

As players deal with an overwhelming list of chaos and homework, the mice army is ready to take over your home! How long can you live in the space？

The original concept was to simulate how low-income students cope with financial burdens, family responsibilities, and personal issues outside of school. Stressful but whimsical game mechanics are designed inspired by different struggles low-income students face on a daily basis. Datas are collected from low-income students at Parsons. The goal is to encourage users to learn empathy as they step into someone else’s shoe.

How I built it 

 I used the XR Interaction Toolkit and XR plugin package with Unity connecting to an Oculus Quest 2 headset by following YouTube tutorials and online resources I found. 

3D Assets & Environment 

In order to achieve a realistic scene where the user can access another person’s private life at home, most models are 3D scanned using photogrammetry. The entire world is a simulation of a real space. 

Assets that I scanned (200+): 

 Chinese religious statues & incense sticks Snacks, spaghetti, other dishes All stuff animals All bags, bed sheets, blankets, pillows, clothes windows, wall texture Daily necessities items 

 Assets found online (128+): 

 Notebooks, pens, markers All furniture other than white shelves, floor, storage box, suitcases, cloth hanger Rodents: rat assets with animation (only purchase), roach Drinks, vegetables & fruits, meat, sandwich, most kitchen utensils 

 Challenges

 Concept Development & Level Design: 

 It has been a rollercoaster designing and developing this game since it’s a personal narrative that I would like to portray. How can I keep the users in the game while they are learning empathy in a virtual space? There is a lot of debate. 

How to keep the player in the game? What is the narrative and story that the user is playing?

I had a difficult time trying to design a user experience that make the user stay in one location since everything is happening inside the apartment. There, I thought about UI elements like visual novel character to demonstrate the main character inside thoughts, narrative and decision making when dealing with a variety of chaotic situations. However, I realize that after playtesting, it's natural for players to walk around the apartment and explore without any necessary additional instructions. I was conflicted on what exactly the users' goal is throughout the experience as it turns into a VR interactive experience that includes multiple mini games within the apartment. Instead, I implicated the use of a cell phone inside the space that provides user the idea that they are living with 1-2 roommates. And the story starts from the second you got home now running into this mess, and you might get killed while dealing with the rats. 

 Optimization : 

 Scanned assets require an extensive amount of optimization by lowering the mesh of each object, re-baking each texture, fixing holes etc. The game would not run at all if I didn’t optimize every object well because I have so many. 

 Programming: 

 This is my second attempt at VR, and I am not the best at programming. I had a lot of problems with integrating my code with the XR Interaction toolkit, because I wasn’t able to understand everything inside the XR interaction toolkit package. 

   *Colliders/Physic bugs unable to fix, game objects can push each other away with a force 

 *Phone interaction with roommates，hinge joints and configurable joints doesn’t work really well for opening door and pulling drawers interaction 

 *Grabbing objects requires an additional grabbing point to make it smoother, some objects still need to

Time Management & Planning:

I didn't necessarily make the best plan and manage my time every well on this project because I didn't realize how long it takes to optimize every scanned objects manually aside from the technical aspects. I didn't include the time that I may make mistakes and need time to debug or find a solution to technical difficulties that I encounter.