In the series, Dash encouraged Lily to release her emotions by challenging her to create artwork and destroy it in a break room. Lily, unaware of the intention, made a muppet and when it was time to break it, she refused to do so as she cared too much about the piece and the time spent in making it, as a result, she failed the challenge.
Like Lily, many of us hold onto things that were once important to us and refuse to let go. And that is how negative emotions pile up and get us stuck. I immediately got inspired by this idea and wondered, what if there was a virtual break room that allows us to release tension without having any consequences?
From there, I decided to create a VR break room that helps us release tension and emotions through fun activities.
Dash & Lily is a rom-com series created by Joe Tracz and based on the young adult novel series Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan.
Based on our research, a break room is a space where people can go to relieve stress and anger by destroying objects. Such rooms have become popular in recent years as a way to release pent-up emotions in a safe and controlled environment. According to CNN there are more than 60 facilities across the country where people can pay to destroy household items. The simplicity of going into a room to unleash stress by breaking things was a stark but welcome contrast to the complexities of the social economy.
Additionally, the majority of customers identify as female, releasing frustration through cathartic destruction. Studies from the American Psychological Association indicates that men and women relieve stress differently: Men are more likely to engage with physical activity, whereas women seek relief from interpersonal relationships. Paris-based psychologist Florence Millot was not surprised that more women than men go to these rooms. “Although women feel anger as much as men do, they have less space to express it,” she explains.
VR experience grands freedom of creativity for designers. Because there's no physical materials, we can invent a whole new world within it. However, it is also due to this nature, it is challenging to deliver the same satisfaction to users in the VR spaces.
Based on the scope of this project, my team set realistic goals to get our concept across, we hope through this VR game, users can:
- Release aggression without physical violence
- Relieve tension through fun activities
- Enjoy the process with appealing visual surroundings
After further research, we learned that the benefits of break rooms are up for debate. While blowing off steam makes many people feel better in the moment, Psychologist Sandra Thomas argues that anger beguiles more anger. However, physical activity or calming procedures are healthier ways to reduce stress.
Shift the Dynamic
By focusing on activities geared towards tension relief from stressors designed to make the user feel uplifted.
Gamify the Experience
By providing the end user with a multitude of different experiences and levels to unwind and release stress.
I did my research and read an article about 10 healthy ways to release rage, which are: throw objects, scream in private, sing, dance, workout, journal, draw, change surroundings, destroy a representation of anger and verbalize your emotions. Based on the scope of our project, here are the spaces and features we defined:
Game Spaces:
1. Smash room: Ray cast and aim at objects and explore them.
2. Throw room: Pick up axe and throw at axe board.
3. Punch room: Punch balls that bounce to the wall and change colors
4. Paint space: Grafitti on the back of the building
A good way to to make this experience fun and rewarding for users is through gamification. We discussed on the potential scenarios and decided to introduce levels and time limits to the game. On the basic level, targets will be static, and users will have 30s to destroy them; on the advanced level, targets will be moving and users will have 60s to destroy them.
We designed the detail flow of the each level. Users should feel a sense of achievement and satisfaction once they finish a level. However, it is also important to not make it too difficult for users, because that can trigger even more anger and aggression. We want users to enjoy this game so that they can finish this game a little happier than when they first enter it.
I created these visuals images hoping to encourage our users to smash, throw, paint and punch in the virtual spaces, I also wrote those slogans to help them let loose and free their emotions, so that they can truly have fun playing this game and release tension from stress.
Although the interactions in the game are seemingly aggressive, eventually our goal is to help users release anger and feel better emotionally. Therefore, I incorporated soft and pastel colors and created a peaceful and serene environment to make users feel light and joyful.
One day I walked pass Bryant Park Grill, looked up and noticed they had a second floor with glass walls, the sun lit the space up, and the place looked almost iridescent, it was delightful. After further research, I learned that our mood and behaviors change based on our surroundings. So I want to create a glass room that changes colors based on the interactions, that way, hopefully users can be uplifted upon entering our room, and by the end of the activities, their stress levels can be reduced.
Another inspiration is the stores on the Lafayette street and graffiti in Lower East Side. I think those places are stylish without too many decorations, they look modern and historical at the same time. And the graffiti gives out the individual expression with fun shapes and colors.
We performed playtesting for the app in Oculus Quest 2 during class, my classmates and instructors at Pratt Institute were very eager to try the game in VR headset. We also improved the project according to their feedback
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Most participants had positive experiences playing with the game, some had constructive advice. Next steps are listed below:
Enable user teleportation systems so that they can jump from room to room in the virtual space.
Originally I did not incorporate teleportation because I assumed it may cause motion sickness in VR. However during playtestings, participants expressed that they'd like to enter into different rooms and destroy objects based on their moods.
Provide guides for each game stage with visual and audio demonstrations.
Novice users might not know how to interact with the game, such as which buttons to click when they want to shoot and throw. Having simple demonstrations will make the game process a lot smoother.