About the creation : 

This project was a game developed for the Hauts-de-Seine Digital Games 2023 event at Paris Expo, to be showcased at the TKorp booth following the success of the “Evasion” project, also created for the department. The project was developed using Unity in C#, targeting PICO 4 VR headsets, which sponsored the project.

As a partner with PICO, TKorp received several PICO 4 headsets before their official release to test them during the event. On this occasion, I had the opportunity to discuss and report bugs to the lead SDK developer at PICO. The project’s pitch was to use these headsets on the booth with multiple players simultaneously in a multiplayer setting on a surface similar to a tennis court, suitable for all ages. The event was open to schools in the department on the first day and to the public on the second day. We came up with the idea of a zero-gravity padel match, with teams competing against each other.

On this project, I leveraged my experience from the “Evasion” project to develop the multiplayer component and the match system, including scoring, goals, and player setup. A host/server computer was hidden in the server room of our booth, responsible for hosting the game, calculating and predicting the ball’s position before transmitting it to the players using movement prediction calculations inspired by Rocket League’s networking system. This approach seemed most relevant due to the similar ball behavior in both games.

During the event, a tablet was available for the match manager, which was mostly me, to send various requests to the server, such as starting games, restarting, controlling the main camera’s path and location displayed on a TV in the booth, and assigning players to teams.

Great attention was paid to the game feel, as this was the first VR experience for most players. We aimed to utilize VR’s full potential, focusing on spatial awareness since the virtual court matched the real-life dimensions. The mix of real movements and impossible reactions, like zero-gravity ball physics, and the virtual environment, a floating court in space surrounded by a futuristic force field with pyrotechnic goals, large electronic scoreboards, and drones displaying scores, enhanced the experience.

Over two days, more than 500 people tested the game. As a developer, it was one of my first experiences seeing players directly and observing their reactions, which was very rewarding. The festival atmosphere, with hundreds of square meters dedicated to entertainment, was fantastic. The live aspect was also quite stressful, as bugs can occur in any project, but they are even more impactful when faced directly. This experience taught me a lot about adaptability and the “show must go on” mentality. As a developer striving for perfection, working with the project’s current state without the possibility of modifications fosters imagination and professionalism. For most players, this was their first VR experience, and almost all were satisfied. However, I know certain aspects could have been improved, even if they were barely noticeable to users. This will be useful for future projects. It was truly touching to see children playing and their parents or teachers sweating to win.

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