CTIN 541: Design for Interactive Media | System Treatment September 24, 2012 Lawrence Jung "Your Imagination

is now Reality" Overview Infinite Realms is a casual mobile experience that involves interactions between the player and a virtual world created by them that exist on top of their reality space. Through a virtual avatar, the player builds the world infusing life into it. With a set of tools, the player can drag and drop virtual items to terraform the environment such as vast deserts, lush forest or sprawling cities. Virtual citizens go on with their daily lives within these environments. These citizens will have requests for the player to make their lives better. By completing these requests, the player can unlock more virtual world customization options such as different plants, buildings and terrain types. The virtual citizens contain their own simple artificial intelligence. They will keep track of what the player has done to them and when was the last time the player has interacted with them. Infinite Realms is played on an iPad or a large touch screen tablet devices. The tablet device is treated as a window for the player to see and manipulate the virtual environment. The real world is treated as the basic terrain for the player to build upon. It cannot be manipulated but only build on top of. The real world is being extended into the virtual space, a realm of infinite possibilities. As the player continues to nurture their virtual world, it will grow and expand across their entire living space. They will also form relationships with the citizens living in this space. Players Players can either create an online account or play the game without online registration. Online connection is not required to play. The online account is used for players to download updates, special items, share their virtual world and connect with friends with the same application. With the Infinite Realms online account, players can visit their friend's virtual worlds and interact with the citizens living there. Players can send gifts; leave messages and helping them with ongoing quests. Without an online account, players work on making their virtual world on what they have envisioned.

Objective The primary Objective is to build and nurture the virtual world that the player has created on top of their reality. They are to nurture this environment to whatever the player has envisioned this space to be. In this virtual world the player constructs an environment that lives on top of their reality space that can be inhabitable for virtual citizens or a wild landscape that is difficult to sustain life. For example, a simple desk table can be transformed into a cliff or a town constructed on top of the couch. Virtual inhabitants go on with their lives as the player continues to build out their world. Set-up Character Creation When the application is first initialized, the player is introduced to a character creating screen. They are to create an avatar that is a representation of the player in the virtual world. Through this avatar, the player will build their virtual world and foster relationships with the virtual citizens living in this world. There is a suite of customization options that the player can use to make their virtual character unique. The art style follows Nintendo Miis and Microsoft's Xbox Live Avatar style.

Avatar's Name: The name of the player's avatar Avatar's Skin Color: The Player can select the color of their Avatar's skin color. Avatar's face: The player can edit the hair style, hair color, eye brow type, eye brow color, eye shape, eye color, nose type, mouth shape, ear shape and extra facial features like a beard or freckles Avatar's upper body: The player can change how big or small the upper body of the avatar will look like. There are some clothing types that are available for the player to dress their avatar up with. More clothing types will be unlocked as the player continues to build out their virtual world. Avatar's lower body: The player can change how tall or short their avatar will be. The player can dress the avatar in pants, dress or other clothing types. They are also able to select what type of shoes the avatar will wear like sneakers or sandals. Accessories: The avatar can wear a variety of accessories such as hats, jewelry or bags. Avatar's voice: The player can determine how the avatar's voice will sound like when it reacts to certain events. These are just sound effects similar to Animalese in Animal Crossing.

World Building

Once the players avatar is created, the avatar is placed in the virtual world augmented on top of what the camera see. The avatar can interact with objects from the real world. For example, if there is a coffee table and the avatar collides with it, an animation will play of the avatar showing to be in a daze after hitting the table. The player will manipulate the virtual environment through the avatar. One of the first options the player can use is Terrain Manipulation. The sections wooden floor in the room can turn into lush green grass, barren desert wasteland or a lake. Through the touch screen interface, the player can select where the terrain will be located, the area size and scale.

Terrain Type: The player selects what type of terrain they would like to overlay a section of reality with. It can be a grassy plain, wetlands, forests, deserts and polar environments. The player will tap the screen where he or she wants the terrain to be placed. Manipulation: There are manipulation icons on the side of the screen for the player to edit the size of the terrain. They are move, rotate, scale and lift. Lift will allow the player to make the terrain hilly in certain areas. Next, the player can create houses and shops on top of the newly form terrain. The very first house that is created is the players home. This teaches the basics of adding world objects to the player. It is a very basic one floor house that will expand and grow as the player continues to develop their virtual world. Players may continue to populate the world with basic homes and shops. As the village is developed further, virtual citizens will flock to the town and move in. This will create a livelier atmosphere with the citizens going shopping, working on the front lawn or just going for a stroll in the park. If a player wants to create a more zoo like environment, the player can focus on developing nature that will bringing in animals from all walks of life to settle in. All of this is living on top of the real world.

Home Type: The player selects what type of home they would like to construct. There are few house types the player can build like a basic one room home, housing apartment and shack. As the player advances, more types of homes will be unlocked like mansions and trailer homes. Shop types: The player selects which types of shops they would like to construct. The player would start off with a Convenience store, family restaurant and small clothing store. As the player continues to grow the virtual, new types of shops will be unlocked like super markets, fast food restaurants and malls. Manipulation: Similar to terrain mode, the player can rotate and change the location of the shops. However the shops cannot be scaled or lifted. The application will render the virtual world in three dimensions and use the accelerometers and gyroscopes on the device to give an accurate perspective of the world when the player is moving around with the device.

Social Interactions The world that the player creates is a persistent world. Even when the player is not actively interacting with the world (or have the application running), the virtual world is still running. When the player launches the application again, they will be entering into a slightly changed world. There could be more virtual citizens who have moved in, some of the neighbor home may have a changed appearance and more stores may have opened. The virtual world is a living breathing world that changes like the real world. When the virtual citizens are comfortable with the player's avatar, they will have quest or request that the player can fulfill. There are social ratings associated between the player and each of the virtual citizens that the player interacts with. The social rating goes from a negative ranking to a positive ranking. The more positive the rating the better the rewards the player will receive when completing a request, however the more negative the rating is, the more likely the citizen will commit a crime or cause chaos in the virtual world. Incorporating this rating system allows the player to consider their decisions when manipulating the virtual since it affects the conditions these virtual characters are living in. The rating system also applies to animals with different results. Animals can either help make the citizens happier or cause

despair. Their results are more related with the environment bringing different customization options to make the world feel more alive.

Citizens Interactions: Citizens can have a variety of request for the player like building a new type of store, redoing the landscaping or moving the (real world) potted plant to allow more light in the city. o Positive Rating: A positive rating is achieve when the player complete the request either early or by the given time frame. There are also bonus objects that the player can complete to raise this ranking. o Negative Rating: This rating is achieved when the player does not fulfill the citizen's request. Other effects can be the player destroys the citizen home from manipulating the terrain. Once the world is set up and created, its all up to the players imagination on how the virtual world will develop further. There could be a floating city in the kitchen and a cave-like world thriving under the dining room table. The lighting of the environment is based on the lighting in the real world making the virtual world feel like it actually exists in reality. Game Flow See attached flow chart. Procedures Avatar Creation: Player creates a digital representation of him/herself for use in the virtual world. The avatar will be used to build the world and interact with the citizens living in it. World Building: With the tools given to the player, a virtual world is created on top of the real world living space of the player. The player creates the terrain, plants foliages and constructs buildings. The objects the player places in the virtual world interacts with the physical space of the real living space of the player. Relationship Building: This is for the player to foster relationships with the virtual citizens living in the world. They have the ability to improve the town and reward the player with more customization options by completing requests. By making sure the social ranking between the player and virtual citizens remain in balance, good things will happen. Share: Players who registered online will be able to share their world with their friends. They also can share gifts to help other people in building their worlds. Collecting: Related to world building, as player expands their virtual world, they will unlock more options such types of stores, homes, animals and citizen types. There is a database for the player to keep track of what they have earned so far. Design Notes

This game is a work in progress and requires play testing to examine the difficulty curve of the player's progression in the game. 1. The rate the player unlocks more world customizable options. If the rate is too slow, the player may get tired of the limited customization options currently available to them. 2. How the player unlocks more world customizable options. Either through developing relationships with the virtual citizens, taking care of the animals or through developing and fleshing out the environment. 3. The personality of each citizen. They are dynamically created and need a compelling personality for the player to interact with. This personality will reflect on the visual style of the citizen (their clothes, decor, etc.) and hobbies. 4. The type of request the citizens ask of the player. These requests need to be meaningful to the player and to help them discover the intricacy of the virtual world they are creating. 5. Social Interaction needs to be fleshed out further. The idea is for the player to make their virtual world shareable with other players across the internet. With robust customization tools, users can share their interesting creations with each others. Game Name Ideas Virtual: Constructive, essential, fundamental, potential, tacit, synthetic Reality: Authenticity, being, existence, genuineness, substance, tangibility, truth, validity, journey, life, living, presence, vitality World: Province, realm, sphere, system Creation: conception, formation, foundation, institution, production Desire: admiration, ambition, appetite, aspiration, craving, craze, frenzy, rapture, passion Village: center, crossroads, community, domicile, dwelling, niche, nook, neighborhood, whereabouts Door: aperture, entry, gateway, portal, frontier, perimeter Inspiration Animal Crossing, Little Big Planet, Minecraft, Spore, Sims, From Dust, Eye Pet

System of Player Interacting with the citizens living in the virtual world.