Puppy Simulator - VR Emotional Research
Position
|
Overview Created a virtual reality simulation of a corgi puppy living room play experience. Included the ability to grab objects, interact with the puppy, place objects, throw a ball and play fetch, dress up the puppy, and feed the puppy. Attempted with a limited time of 5 minutes to create an emotion bond with the puppy, which would then choke and die when fed too large of a treat, creating an emotional reaction. |
Research This project was conducted as a research study, the point of which was to gauge an emotional reaction upon a 1-10 Likert scale and see how the levels compared with different levels of realism in the environment and the model of the puppy. There were 4 different versions created of the game: Realistic Dog Realistic Environment, Realistic Dog Toon Environment, Toon Dog Realistic Environment, and Toon Dog Toon Environment. The way the emotional reaction was created was by having the puppy die by means of choking on a treat, shocking, yet personal and realistic. Environment Style The simulation had two different environments as shown in the example gfycats, a realistic and toon environment (which was modified through shaders). The choice to keep the dog indoors was important so there could be little confounding variables to how emotional reactivity was received. Keeping the player indoors prevents distraction, and keeping a minimalist environment allows the player to focus on their relationship with the puppy through playing fetch, dressing them up, and giving them treats. |
Testing and Experiment Design
Primary testing took place via the HTC Vive Pro with 22 participants over 2 days of testing. Each test took about 10 minutes including questions and answers. In order not to traumatize participants, pre-questions were asked to filter out those who had experience pet loss recently. In addition, participants were not told that the puppy was going to die in order to create the surprise and shock required for an emotional reaction. Results The results of the study were that the different appearance of the dog didn't produce a significant impact on the player's emotional reactivity. The appearance of the environment, however, was found to have a significant impact with a confidence of 90%. This suggests that the environment in virtual reality applications could impact the emotional reactions of the player when in engaged with meaningful, purpose driven actions. |
Full Play Through - Both Environments
|
|
Individual Team Contributions |
Justin Legare: environment design, experiment design & conductor, primary researcher, data analytics, UX design, environment props
Carly Fox: programming, collision, game design, implementation, dog pathing & AI Welly Chang: character artist, texture artist, sound, cell shading Martin Chang: character animator, sound, data analysis |