Visual Design of a Social Virtual Environment : Designing and Creating a Virtual Room for a Social Game

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate the process of designing a room for a 3D-avatar chat. The thesis is linked to a mobile game development project, called the Project X, which is a gamified avatar chat set in a virtual world. The setting of the Project X is a fictional luxury hotel, and the room that this thesis concentrates on is a cigar lounge-type public room in the hotel.

The paper will start out by introducing some common player type categorizations. It will then move on to discussing what types of players are most wanted in a purely social game, and how should the different types be catered to. The paper will also touch on the subject of architectural theory, especially related to game environments and level design.

The second half of this thesis goes over the actual room design stages, starting from brainstorming, to assembling the room in the game engine.