So Long GDC 2025!
About:
Using EEG-detecting headbands, opponents are able to battle each other via meditation tournaments. Using brainwave, heart, movement, and other data outputs from the headbands, metrics are created from a competitor's state of mind, stillness, and heart rate, to determine who is the most relaxed. This software was designed in conjunction with a ruleset to be used for "Competitive Meditation".
Role: Lead Designer
Team Size: 9~
Engine: Unity
Platform: PC
Dev Time: 2 Weeks
Timeframe: Mar-Apr, 2024
While this concept of “meditation tournaments” initially started out as an idea partnered with the creators of the headsets, my team and I were eventually contracted to design a piece of software as well as a ruleset to allow these tournaments to take place in a digital setting. As a part of this contract, we were tasked with developing the software using the headbands, concepting in testing a ruleset that would be used to manage a tournament, as well as thoroughly documenting our whole process, all in just two weeks.
The first week of the project was spent nailing our concept and thinking of interesting and interactive ways that we could utilize the headsets. An issue that we discovered early on was the idea, or lack thereof, of how to represent if a player is winning or losing on screen. On top of that, a rule set needed to be made, that includes every possible scenario in a match so that a governing body could mediate if need be. But before any of this could be done, we first needed to understand what kind of data the headset pulls, as well as the best way to parse it and present it to users.
By the start of week two the concept for our rule set had been finalized, and was then tested under various conditions and scenarios to see if anything needed to be specified, or if there was a condition that may have been biased toward a player. Ask for the tournament, players will be run through a classic bracket-style tournament with each player being randomly assigned an opponent and then forced to climb the bracket in order to reach the finals.
After accessing the headset’s metric tracking systems through Unity, I was able to note what specific points of data we'd be able to access and use to calculate a player's score. in the end, we decided to track a player's rolling average heart rate, theta brainwaves, and body movement.
After running some tests and finding out with the average values for these data points were, I was able to construct an algorithm that could accurately and fairly be used to score each player based on the pace of their heartbeat and brain activity. Both players' scores would be represented visually on screen Through a visualizer that imitated a tug of war, with the player who has the highest score taking up an increasingly large number on the screen.
With this project being my first time engaging in contract work, I feel like I gained invaluable Insight on how to handle myself when communicating with clients, while also being able to showcase my design skills in non-conventional ways. On top of this, I was also able to let loose my love for project documentation on a scale I've never quite done before, but I hope I get to again soon!
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