Good afternoon to everyone who has found themselves here and reading! As promised, we will engage you with our activities every week and what is a better way to do this, than to introduce you to our groups of hardworking students!
This week, we will be having a few words with the JARABEE project group! Before we get down to tedious details and more business, it is important to mention that this project group is delivering the final touches of the demo that the previous rotation of interns was working on. Therefore, this team is finalizing the JARABEE project this Friday and will be mingled together with the other two projects groups starting next week! Wonder what those projects encompass? Stay tuned and make sure to read our previous post for further insight if you have not yet!
So, what is the JARABEE project?
It is a project which encompasses the development of a VR game, which is aimed at families/parents who want to adopt or foster a child. The parties interested in the process will get to play out various problem – solving scenarios which could occur between their biological and their foster children. Now that we have got the idea out in the open, let’s put our interns in the spotlight! The three students, who are working on this project, have to enhance (and develop) the demo for the game! What are their main tasks? Updating the (major) look of the game, which includes: new textures, remodeling of various scene objects, fixing the light, updating the UI, integrating new voice lines, adjusting the script to make it more immersive… You get the point – it is a lot of work, but do they enjoy it? Absolutely (I mean, look at the snap previews of their product so far!).
So, what do these charming young adults like about the JARABEE project?
First off, it is a great motivator for getting back into the workflow after summer break, and having a lean transition is always a nice plus when it comes to getting back to work! Apart from this, the endeavor gives them to opportunity to test what they know and do not know so far – the fact that this is a VR rather than a regular PC game is very intriguing since the different environment requires them to keep certain things in mind! Consequently, they do not have prior experience with mobile games, which makes this project thrilling and challenging.
On the other hand, the headset which is being used for this game is not the Oculus Rift, but the Oculus Quest, which is exciting because it opens doors to new approaches – finding different new ways to optimize the game to curate a pleasant experience for the players is quite enjoyable. Then again, who doesn’t like a little challenge? The students do find the aspect of reworking the game to be challenging since they have never had to work with the files of different developers – this particular aspect shows them how much they need to keep their eyes peeled, but enhances their attention to detail in the long run!
The working environment
Of course, the working environment is incredibly important when developing a game! So, what do our interns like about GameLab Oost? The atmosphere at the office and the working space are very comfortable, and the students especially like that the working environment is open and everyone can sit down and work on their part – no one would make excess noise since the people respect that it is a working environment after all. The internal communication is also up to the point since the interns have the floor to ask questions and there is always someone from GameLab who can answer those questions or offer to lend a hand.
Lastly, of course, the projects are being closely monitored throughout the process, to make sure that everything is going as planned. In the end, when the final playtest has passed – the demo gets delivered to the clients! So, all in all, everyone is pretty happy and this is our main objective! Do make sure to check out and examine the previews of the demo the JARABEE team has made and hit up the like button to show support for these guys!
See you next week with a different explosive post, so do stay tuned!