Waterwings

Water Wings is a meditative virtual reality experience with “collectathon” or
“scavenger hunt” elements. The participant will travel through a sunken
civilization in the company of a mysterious manta ray and an angelfish to
collect magical rune-inscribed stones. At the end of the experience, the stones
will revive the secrets of the civilization and the player will be able to ascend into
the sky on the back of their manta ray companion.
Our main goals for the project were to have an experience with a concentration
in a sense of agency for our audience who may be bed bound, to have an
experience that was calming and meditative, and to create the opportunity for
our audience to have a feeling of awe and escapism.
To accomplish these goals we made sure the main mechanic of moving around
and collecting rune stones would be accessible to most players. To do this we
made all interactions in the experience be accessible and responsive to the
player moving their head.

Some of my contributions were rigging characters Manta and Bubbles, creating a perforce depot for the project, the caustics system, trailer and gameplay videos. I used the "Beefy Bass" UE marketplace asset by MWallace3D with our own fish models for the fish schooling system.

The team:
Jack Bell
Jenna Bresky
Katie Stevens
Rowan Bruton
and me :)

Special thanks to Teri Yarbrow for guidance, Dean Max Almy, and Dr. Kathleen Benton for her insight.