Unity Version 2019.2.6f1 Although I have tried to display this through the logo, the green bin is supposed to be for recyling and the other one for normal trash.
The general goal of this game was to promote keeping the environment clean and recylcing. More specifically, I wanted to educate users on when it is possible to recylce (rather than just throw away in the trash). I care about the environment and I believe that we must do a better job of protecting it and making sure we recycle when we can. When I moved to India after middle school, I saw first-hand how ignorance towards the environment could lead to several problems and I volunteered to help clean the neighborhoods near me. I decided to make a VR game that would make the concept of environment-friendliness more fun and enjoyable. In my game, I have different litter items that need to be desposed and it is the user's job to decide which ones need to be put in the recylcing bin (green) and which ones need to be placed in the normal garbage can. To make the game interesting andhave a reward attached to it, I added a score tracker to the camera to reward good decisions (placing in right bin) and penalize bad decisions (placing in wrong bin). To further increase the "satisfaction" in recycling, I addded a cheering/clapping audience sound to indicate that the user has successfully recycled. Through these ways I am able to make the idea of recylcing and cleaning more fun and positive, which is important for growing kids.
The main reason VR is a good medium to achieve my goals is that the act of cleaning and recycling can be gamified by having a scoring system and celebration sounds. This obviously does not happen in real life when someone picks up trash or recycles. VR helps attach positive feelings to helping the environment, which is just what is needed to motivate younger kids to take action. Today, kids turn to modern applications for entertainment and education. VR is the perfect way to combine the two and make this a positive educational experience for the user which will ingrain the idea of cleaning and recycling into their minds.
The main concern with using VR as a medium for my goals is that it does not allow the user to experience the hard work and effort it takes to keep the environment clean. There is a lot of work that is put in when picking up trash and recylcing, which can not be simulated in a VR environment. Another element which I struggled with was h preserving a normal size ratio between items and trash bins, while keeping the act of picking up objects natural and realistic. Intially, the size of my items were of normal size but this made it very difficult to pick up items. I would have to reach down multiple times, grab at the ground repeatedly, to pick up any item. To solve this, I made objects larger which allowed me to pick up items with ease. This meant that I had to darastically increase the size of the bins to to accomodate for the larger trash items.