Hey everyone, Just a quick update on what the students are up to this year while teaching at the Academy of Interactive Entertainment, in Canberra Australia. The students had the chance to experiment recently with virtual reality for the first time, using the oculus quest headsets that AIE provided. This is great, as in previous years we could only use google cardboard, although the con for that is most students who study online had to rely heavily on on-campus students to test the games as not all students had access to headsets while studying remotely.

For context... the subject duration for the programmers and designers was 10 days, stretched over 4 weeks, and the artists join in the last 2 weeks of the subject for 5 days to develop the art. The students were given some simple deliverables they had to meet, but they got to pick the theme/setting. They designed and programmed in preparation for the artists who would join in at a later date as previously specified.

It's important to acknowledge the teachers, Cliff Sharif and Enrique Klein for heading this subject, additionally Kay Bird, Tony Oakden, and Sean Fenemore as support teachers. As they all were essential in ensuring things were running smoothly before the artists and I joined the subject.

In total, we had 4 games created, "Beat Street", "Fly-High Fishing", "Super Darts" & "Open Haus".

Please note!
keep in mind, that these games are more considered prototypes, not finished complete products. They had a very tight turnaround, in terms of a deadline. And it was likely the first time students were getting experience working with Virtual reality, so art design and programming might need some additional passes to be considered something else than a prototype. 

Beat Street

Beat Street is a VR, first-person, rhythm game where you drive a car using drums to get to the end of a highway while playing to the beat of a song! while avoiding oncoming cars in sync with the beat.

Credits:
Artists: Hayley Brooker, Dion Maher, Ace Davison, Azshwyn Sibley, Scott Ivy
Design: Charlie Brazil, Bilal Jalil, Thomas Wisowaty, Zachariach Navarro-Bustos
Programming: Ronan Richardson, Nghia Do, Nicholas Connell, Christopher Smith

Download here:
https://beatstreet.itch.io/beatstreet

Fly-High Fishing

“Fly High Fishing” is a VR fantasy bow-fishing game set within a hot air balloon high above the clouds. The player’s task is to catch as many fish as they can with their bow & arrow before the timer runs out.

Credits:
Artists: Aislinn (Ayvee) Smith, Connor Mckinnon, Anais Robert
Design: Flynn Van Stryp, William Hopkins, Jake Stephens
Programming: Jazmin Fazzolari, Calvin Soueid, Marcus Ellis

Student Blogs:
Aislinn: Breakdown of the UI
Connor: Breakdown of assets
Anais: Breakdown of assets

Download here:
https://flyhighfishing.itch.io/fly-high-fishing

Super Darts

Super Darts is a 3D VR game in which a player must complete a set of levels by popping balloons at increasing difficulty.

Credits:
Artists: Ethan Kyte, Holly Thompson, Jesse Lazzaro, Lachlan Goolagong, Lawson Upton
Design: Brodie Maddren, Caitlin Johansson, Leo Lopez, Paige Dowsett, Beau Bardwell
Programming: Charlie O’Regan, Lewis Comstive, James Greensill

Student Blogs:
Ethan Kyte: Breakdown of assets
Holly Thompson: Breakdown of assets

Download here:
https://superdarts.itch.io/super-darts 

OpenHaus

Open Haus is a first-person VR puzzle game where players push, drag and carry the furniture to set up a small house interior based on a reference photo. Players must do their best to match the position and orientation of the furniture in the provided photo before clients arrive for the open house viewing.

Credits:
Artists: Petra Crispin, Lara Diego, Kye Harrison
Designers: Ahmad Galea, Daniel Power, Matthew Wakely
Programmers: Nathan Duck, Noah Freeman, Alexander Manning

Student Blogs:
Petra Crispin: Breakdown of assets

Download Here:
https://dont-chair-us-apart.itch.io/open-haus 

Thanks for reading and checking out this article so far. Make sure to check out the student blogs and portfolios linked. Students are still working on their portfolios, and have till December to work on them. So there might be a few more links ill add as they come through.

Stay safe everyone,

Finn