It Takes Three
VR, PC(Controller), Mobile | 14 weeks project with team Trinity
A multiplayer cross-three-platform collaboration game, design and developed within 14 weeks.
A Jet Pack (Mobile) and a Giant (VR) helping a Cat (PC), overcoming obstacles to become their god, in a creature-less techno surrealism world.
My Role
3D Modeling and Animation
Shader and Materials
UI/UX Design
Game Design
Our Team
Jerry Zheng | Producer, Programmer
Yifan Jiang | Programmer
Vector Liu | Level Designer
Sharon Liu | SFX, VFX Artist
Max Zhang | 3D Artist
Helen Yang | 3D Artist, UI/UX Designer
Tool
Unity, Maya, Substance Painter, Procreate, Figma
Instructor
Brenda Harger
Scott Stevens
Project Goal
It Takes Three is a student pitch project made by Team Trinity
who re-imagines collaboration experience across VR-PC-Mobile platforms.
We make three players who wish to connect with each other have a good time together.
Design Goal
Uniqueness, Connection, Fun
We hope to make simple actions have meaningful and various influence on the game.
Mobile - the "Mystery Mouske-Tool"
From "Action" to "Influence"
Rich input sources—microphone, gyroscope, touchscreen, etc. of mobile reminded us of the Mystery Mouske-tool. So we made the mobile player a multi-mode toolkit, with ACTION as the design keyword.
We chose unconventional inputs and aimed for a direct physical-to-in-game mapping. We also hope that simple actions in the physical world can have various meaningful influence on the game world.
Actions we chose are:
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Swipe (touchscreen)
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Shake (gyroscope)
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Blow (microphone volume detection)
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Tilt (gyroscope)
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Press (touchscreen)
Jetpack - SHAKE to "Shake"
Swipe to pick the direction, and shake the energy liquid out.
Every direction is meaningful:
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Fire backward to boost, forward to destroy obstacles, downward to lift the cat, and upward to push down buttons.
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The really fun moments happening repetitively in playtest is when player shake the mobile crazily in order to save their cat friend from falling.
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With the help of slingshot (operated by VR), mobile and PC can even experience a short period of flying experience.
Fan - BLOW to "Blow"
Shield - TILT to "Tilt"
Paired with laser reflection:
We want to create a challenge that requires all three players' close collaboration to align the correct intersection.
The PC player moves and rotates (Y-axis) the cat, the VR player positions reflective panels, and the mobile player activates and rotates (Z-axis) the shield.
VR - The Giant Operator
Grabbing platforms and Slingshot
Color coding for interactable and non-interactable, consistent "handle" design to enforce "grab"
Become the mini guy and ride the cat!
Not only the change in perspective, but a second playthrough.
We intentionally keep VR's ability to grab platforms when it becomes a mini guy, since we don't want the riding just to be an easter egg. In fact, with combination of the cat, the tool bag and the mini guy, this level can be re-played a second time in a brand new way.
Though we don't have time to implement all, we have been designing more skills for the mini VR guy: what if it can raise the shield? what if it shoot out a grappling hook?
PC - The Cat
Bring the cat to the game world
Basic movement: We break down animation clips and blend them in Unity based on real-time movement, so that our cat could dynamically adapt to different situations.
Move: We blend stand, walk, and run animation based on speed.
Jump: We break down jumping into 5 clips: ready for jump, jumping upward, forward, downward, and landing. And blend them by velocity and distance from the ground (also apply to falling).
Bring the cat to life
Juice: We believe that a real cat should do way more then moving and jumping. We implement juicy idle animations such as yarning and licking, as well as movement that can be triggered actively by the player such as high-five and meowing
.
Shader: We used a fuzzy, slightly emissive Fresnel effect as a GPU-friendly alternative of the traditional "shells and fins technique". Given the player’s typical viewing distance, this solution provides sufficient visual fidelity while avoiding the cost of detailed fur rendering.
It Takes Three!
Collaborative problem solving
Collaboration challenges through level design.
Inter-Player Interaction
Juice of cooperation: high five, emoji, pat cat when on it's back.
We designed hidden easter eggs triggered through player interactions, encouraging communication beyond task-solving. We hope to foster genuine connections—helping players become closer friends, not just teammates.
More than one way to play
When VR become the mini guy --> It can ride on the cat!
Not only the change in perspective, but a second playthrough.
We intentionally keep VR's ability to grab platforms when it becomes a mini guy, since we don't want the riding just to be an easter egg. In fact, playing with the new combination of cat, tool bag and mini guy, this level can be re-played a second time in a brand new way.
Fly: With the help of slingshot (operated by VR), mobile and PC can even experience a short period of flying experience.
