VR | Dream Stream

The idea was to let go of reality and gently drift through a brain dreaming of Protopia—a place to proactively prototype hopeful futures based on our values of community and creativity. To help bring our Protopia to life, we sent out a questionnaire to staff that prompted them to think of dream-inspired themes, ideas, and moments.

They came back with an embarrassment of riches in the form of surreal imagery, engaging interactions, and hilarious scenarios—everything from levitating creme brûlée to a tennis grudge match with Nicki Minaj that substituted T-bone steaks for rackets.

The idea of creating multiple zones (or worlds) was hatched from a logistical concern. With 500 inner tubes on the river, we were worried about congestion and bottlenecking.

By breaking up the traffic into different explorable zones, we could provide a more enjoyable experience. In all, six zones made it into the finished experience: Theta Waves, Pawllywood, Cape Huggleton, The Lollipop, Gallery Bay, and BUCK FM.

Theta Waves

Relaxing, calming, minimal, and a bit magic. This is your brain just before it slips into dreamworld.

Pawllywood

An ode to the most loyal of slack channels, #pupperinos. This is where puppers and other four-legged friends go when they die...a heavenly dog park in the sky. Where dog meets dog spelled backwards.

Cape Huggleton

Welcome to Friendship Land, where all creatures, great and small, can be themselves, and be loved for it. The vibe is mid-tempo acid jazz. Feel that brand new heavy.

The Lollipop

Where childhood, creativity, and the inner mind meet. A colorful landscape of candy and drip castles laced with frosting and psychedelia.

Gallery Bay

A awe-inspiring art tunnel wallpapered with BUCK’s best work from the year. From client work to personal illustrations, this is where we fanned our feathers. Off the main gallery was a crowd favorite, a small alcove that offered 3D air drawing.

BUCK FM

A small grotto where the BUCK fam left wishes for the new year along with audio recordings. Follow the river, listen to the dreams.

Each zone had some low commitment activities like throwing beach balls or taking pictures for a scavenger hunt. We kept the controls for these simple and intuitive. The beach balls had an addicting “Jedi force” mechanic that gave the user the feeling of telekinesis.

Although conceptually different, all the zones needed to feel connected. This was achieved through the color palette and a general shape language as well as a few general guiding principles: the worlds should be open sky with wide rivers and sparsely populated land in order to not feel claustrophobic and give the whole experience a calming, meditative vibe.

As one of the creative technologists, I focused on creating custom water and water caustics shaders for the Theta Cave within the Theta Waves world.

Using Unity’s Shadergraph node editor, I created shaders that blend together textures and with added real-time noise for real-time distortion and rippling animations.