BBC
Doctor Who: Time Vortex VR
_Design: 3D Modelling, Animation, VR UI
_Tech: HTML5, WebGL, 3D Rendering, WebVR, 360º Motion Controls
Democratising VR
As soon as work began on the game, it immediately became clear that it would be an amazing candidate for VR. In the latter half of the project we worked with the BBC and Samsung Internet to make this happen. However, this was far from just grabbing our £2.5k HTC Vive rig and tuning it up for the lucky elite! Working closely with Samsung we targeted mainstream mobile devices as our core audience, with the aim being to put a rich, meaningful VR experience is as many hands as possible.
Using webvr-polyfill technologies we made the game run on a wide range of not just Samsung hardware, but all other (appropriate spec) devices from the worlds of Android and iOS. Drop your phone into any Gear VR / Daydream / Cardboard VR viewer and take it for a spin. So long as you're reasonably up to date with hardware and OS, you'll probably be surprised. VR for the masses has truly arrived!
There's a game in everything
Turning one of television's most abstract 30 seconds title sequences into a fully playable game was no mean feat. Striking film and TV visuals are amazing as linear visual treats but preserving their fidelity and essence in an interactive, playable format meant some out of the box thinking.
Gameplay segments were authored in 2D and then converted into the 3D tunnel space via the game engine. The Vortex itself procedurally bends and warps the whole game system meaning that a tight, curated gameplay system feels part of a living, breathing race through time itself!
It's BEHIND you!
Digital innovation is at the heart of the BBC Taster mandate, so making a game that uses the 360º motion controls on mobile devices was a logical brief.
Rather than using accelerometer controls as an optional extra, we fully embraced them and created a game that was designed from the outset to be controlled by physical positioning.
There was inevitably some fancy footwork to be done as the TARDIS needed to be both craft and 'cursor' all at the same time. Movement required a complex system of angle based distance adjustments and camera projection to make it feel controllable but crucially, fun.
