Overview
The 2021 VR Jam was a 72-hours game design competition. I worked as Creative Director and Interaction Designer for the project alongside my two teammates Tomer (Engineer) and David (3D Artist). I’m really proud of the creative process in this project and what we were able to ship in the short time frame.
The theme of the jam was “Small World.” At first glance, I think the end product may look simple: ‘creating a VR version of the Disney ride’ But the details are much more nuanced – especially given the 72 hours.
The first two lines of the popular song (which, fun fact! Is arguably the only Disney song not copywritten because it was originally made for UNICEF) are: “It’s a world of laughter, a world of fear.”
I’ve only been on the ride once and unpacking how we might make it a true ‘world of fear’ seemed like an exciting direction for a VR game.
How can we bring a world of fear to a beloved Disney ride?
We researched a few ‘Bizzaro Disney’ projects like Dismaland and Escape From Tomorrow in addition to the original It’s a Small World Ride which debuted at the World’s Fair in 1964.
Our attention to detail can be seen below in the use of the original blueprints for the original ride along with the creation of VR’s FIRST (!) rubber band gun which was for sale at the 1964 World’s Fair! We implemented real sounds from a similar gun we found online, it arrived about halfway through the jam thanks to 24-hour shipping.
