Game Design
Unreal Engine
XR
Yonder : Building a Bridge Between Children and Counselors in a Fun and Accessible Communication Environment
Role: Game Flow Design & Service Design
Duration: 2022.01 - 2022.05
Tool: Unreal Engine
Platform: VR (Oculus)
Research:
The current ratio of psychiatrists to patients in China.
According to statistics, there are 20,500 registered psychiatrists and 30,000 nurses in China, with an average of 1.5 psychiatrists and 2.2 nurses per 100,000 people. The world average is 4 psychiatrists and 13 nurses per 100,000 people. There are over 100 million people with mental disorders in China, among which there are approximately 16 million people with severe mental disorders, resulting in a doctor-to-patient ratio of 1:840. The shortage of psychiatrists and nurses is a severe problem. For every 10,000 patients, there are 0.75 doctors and 1.17 nurses, while considering all mental health professionals (including doctors, nurses, counselors, and social workers), the ratio is 2.94.
Summary of current situation
The huge gap between the doctor-to-patient ratio, the shortage of per capita medical resources, and the large number of unregulated grassroots mental health professionals reflect the extreme imbalance in the distribution of mental health resources in China. Most patients have little chance of accessing high-quality and advanced treatment methods.
In children and adolescents, the overall prevalence rate of various mental disorders is as high as 17.5%. Psychological issues such as ADHD, anxiety, and depression have become the elephant in the room, and they need to be scientifically addressed and actively resolved.
Persona
Psychological treatment target: Steve
Age: 8 years old
School age: 2nd grade
About:
Steve is a boy who is in the second grade. Due to his personality, he is a little bit out of place at school, but he doesn't know who to talk to.
His parents were at their wits' end, and after an offline psychiatric appointment, the therapist's advice was simply for the parents to spend more time with their child.
Steve has an interest in VR games and, like children his age, is often happy in a harmonious and colorful space.
Pain Points:
- Parental companionship does not resolve internal emotions
- It is difficult to find the right person to talk to during the day
- Often it is not possible to communicate effectively with the therapist, not knowing how to express one's emotions, and it is difficult to make the other person understand one's emotions naturally through words alone
Needs:
- Get a sense of companionship in daily life
- A more comfortable and interesting treatment experience
- Find the right listener
- Expressing and resolving inner emotions
Psychotherapist: Jane
Age: 42 years old
About:
Jane is an experienced psychotherapist who often experiences new technologies to support psychotherapy. After experiencing VR technology, she is looking forward to the application of psychotherapy and metaverse. She often encounters difficult problems in her work with children and hopes to use the metaverse to facilitate communication during the sessions.
Pain Points:
- Sometimes there are bottlenecks in communication
- Sometimes it is difficult to communicate with some children
- Difficulty in communicating with children in a more personal way
Needs:
- Finding the right way to communicate
- Use more effective treatment tools
- Make your work more impactful
Define:
Their needs:
Children and adolescents:
1. increasing incidence of psychological problems
2. difficulty in accessing quality resources when they are in non-first-tier cities
Counselors:
1. more flexible counseling schedules
2. easier access to counseling records and follow-ups
Mental health industry:
1. traditional psychotherapy techniques appear antiquated and ineffective in the face of the Internet wave
2. the need for standardized supervision and guidance for mental health practitioners in general
Opportunity:
There is a large gap in the psychological consultation market, and R technology is developing rapidly, but the application of virtual reality technology in psychological consultation is less and the market demand is large.
We offer:
Convenience of consulting space within the metaverse:
1. Eliminate geographical barriers for visitors and reduce time and financial costs
2. relieves the psychological stress of in-person counseling and provides an environment for equal communication between doctor and patient
3. fast and convenient data recording and retrieval for supervision, guidance and prognosis
Evidence-based effectiveness of play therapy techniques:
1. social skills training based on "joint attention" and "theory of mind"
2. attention training for "executive dysfunction" 3. stimulation of "embodied cognition "Psychological sand tray interaction for "embodied cognition
Innovative spatial environment design:
1. Fairy tale like vivid image and element design, adapt to the interest characteristics of children
2. unpredictable scene switching and fascinating game interaction, fully mobilizing children's participation 3. consistent internal logic, the same humanistic care in the changing scenes
Product Definition:
A communication environment that is enjoyable for children to experience and easy for counselors to utilize, with lower communication barriers and more fun therapeutic experiences, builds a bridge between children and counselors.
Yonder is designed to create a communication environment that is enjoyable for children and user-friendly for counselors, bridging the gap between their two worlds. Children can enter the metaverse as avatars to receive psychological counseling, and can choose from various game spaces for targeted therapy.
In the virtual world of "Yonder," we have designed a game mechanism centered on cooperation and decision-making to enhance the interactive participation of both the therapist and the child. Interactive features are full of possibilities to encourage children to explore the limits of their abilities and imagination. We have also created a flexible and responsive spatial environment to metaphorically demonstrate that everyone has an equal and fantastic mind.
Comparison with the current business model:
1. Traditional psychological treatment
Traditional psychological treatment programs do not meet the needs of children for a more intimate interview relationship.
2. General VR games:
Ordinary VR games usually provide entertainment and do not have other functionalities.
3. General VR treatment:
Too specialized, and mental illness is a spectrum. It should be able to take care of any level of symptoms.
Storyboard:
User Flow:
Character Design:
Expressions:
After researching existing related data and experiments, we found that autistic children's perception of expressions pointed more to the mouth area, i.e., the lower skeleton information feature part. In the experiment, the designer designed a set of comparison diagrams between the exaggerated deformation of the lower skeleton and the normal proportion of the lower skeleton, and the experiment proved that most children chose the character image with more information expression in the mouth area. This design application symbol for the specificity of expression cognition became the guide for the whole design style.
Silhouette shape:
The image is mainly considered in terms of the large silhouette shape. A round silhouette will have a sense of solidity and stability. The use of square triangle silhouette will have a sense of stability and heaviness, the use of these obvious graphic symbols can better reflect the image characteristics, but also implies the user's inner image of self-orientation.
Colors:
According to research results, children with autism prefer the blue-green system, followed by the black, brown, and orange-red systems. Overall, children have less preference for color, with boys having a greater preference for cooler colors and girls having a greater preference for warmer colors. And combining all the results shows that for autistic children cool colors can promote psychological balance, so in scientific studies, autistic children prefer cool colors. And among the cool colors autistic children have the highest sense of security for blue and green, so this can be exploited by increasing the saturation of the two colors appropriately and comparing them with the brightness of other colors. Therefore, the image design of the patient's image is mainly based on cool colors, on the other hand, in a long period of research and practical application shows that pink has a significant calming and calming effect, so the tutor's image is designed in pink.
-Patients can choose the color and shape of the image according to their own preferences.
Space Design:
Space I: Star Desert
According to environmental psychology, combined with VR technology, through the space composition that brings a sense of security, it brings a sense of security to patients who are new to the unfamiliar world and face unfamiliar doctors, so that they can let go of their guard more quickly and thus promote the treatment of psychological therapists.
Space 2: Soft Fish
Plush texture, cave wrapping sense, are the tools to create a sense of space "shelter", in the appropriate location to open the window, so that patients can see the outside view, and shine into the sun.
Space 3: Garden Labyrinth
This is a space that is both beautiful and interesting. This semi-open labyrinth is designed to allow patients to explore freely: rotating stairs, green lawns, private courtyards...
Level Design:
Treatment game 1: Parkour in the Maze Ball
Task:
1. Communicate with the tutor and get the path color information
2. Move forward in the maze and rendezvous with the tutor successfully
Target group: Autism
Develop ability: Cooperation ability
Game format: Two-person game
Inspired by the Maze Ball. The created character is like a ball in a Maze Ball, walking on different planes of the path and finally reaching the end.
Thanks to the VR technology, we can experience the anti-gravity experience in the metaverse.
The middle of the two platforms is made up of translucent squares, the middle is a color changeable square, the translucent square is not walkable, the character can only walk from the middle color changeable square. The patient is the green path, the tutor is the red path (PS: when the character goes to the colorless square, it will automatically fall and return to the starting point)
Both sides can't see each other, but they can communicate by voice, and both sides need to know each other's path color through communication in order to complete their own path, so as to reach the next space.
The patient communicates with the mentor and learns that the path in the mentor's space is pink, so he rotates the cube suspended in the air and selects pink, so the other half of the path is generated. The mental mentor rotates the cube, selects green, the color is correct, the path is generated, and the character passes.
The patient and the tutor go through the same process as above several times and come to the final big platform, successfully rendezvous and the game is over.
Treatment game 2: Star River Boat Trip
Task:
1. Control the boat forward to reach the end
2. Collect or dodge according to the rules during the voyage
Target group: ADHD
Develop ability: Execution ability
Game format: Single player game
The game is mainly played by rowing the boat to control the direction and collect the stars and moon. Players manipulate the direction of the boat through the handle to avoid mountains and keep walking in the waterway. At the same time, depending on the mode, players need to perform different operations on the star and moon (collecting or avoiding).
Game Panorama
The scene is set in a psychedelic valley, using a winding river with rolling mountains on both sides to clarify the game path to the player.
Players need to try to control the direction of the boat to avoid colliding with the mountains. If the boat collides with a mountain range, the amount of blood will be reduced. When the blood is depleted, the game is over.
Episode1: Sustained response inhibition
In the first half, the player needs to control the ship to adapt to the waterway and collect the moon at the same time, in the second half, the waterway is still there, but the ship becomes automatic and the player only needs to collect the moon.
Episode2: Dominant response inhibition
The first half of the star moon is glowing yellow, players should collect the star moon; the second half of the star moon is red, players should dodge, otherwise drop the amount of blood.
Episode3: Interference response inhibition
There are yellow glowing stars and moons and red stars and moons throughout the course, players should collect yellow stars and moons and avoid red stars and moons.
Final
Players will pass the level when they come to the end of the line - the shrine - without running out of blood.
Treatment game 3: Psychological Sand Tray
Task:
1. Select the favorite model in the model library
2. Place in the starry desert
Target group: Any person with psychological problems
Develop ability: Self-expression
Game format: Single player game
Psychological sand tray is a common treatment tool in psychotherapy. By observing the sandbox scene built by the patient, the doctor can analyze the patient's mental condition and achieve the purpose of targeted guidance.
The game sets the background to the starry desert to create a non-realistic magical wonderland sandbox experience, and the sandbox models in the game model library are also more stylized than ordinary models to increase the fun of the game.
Game Flow:
The patient and the tutor will consult in the consultation room, and when the conversation comes to an end, the tutor will lead the patient out of the consultation room. When the conversation is over, the tutor will lead the patient out of the consultation room.
The mentor leads the patient towards the desert outside the counseling room, a large environment that is a large sandbox.
Examples of sandbox works:
Example 1: The water source, vegetation, and vibrant scenery can show the patient's desire for a better life and hope for peace, but the scattered distribution of plants and the large number of individual ones indicate that the patient is more lonely inside.
Example 2: The fence connection is gathered in the lower right corner of the picture, indicating that the patient is more defensive. The scarecrow on the left side stands alone, indicating that he has something more fearful inside, so he prefers to be alone.