Deliverable n°3.2 ViDaCs Serious Game Serious Game PRO… · VIDACS Deliverable3 2 - the serious game Protom 5 1 Introduction This document, as claimed by to the video linked, wants

VIDACS Deliverable3 2 - the serious game Protom 1

Deliverable n°3.2

ViDaCs Serious Game

ViDaCS - Violent Dad in Child Shoes

Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme Agreement number

Project number 810449

Start date: 12 September 2018

Duration: 24 months

Coordinator: DSU

Partners: CTS, RIA, OLV, VDG, PROTOM

This publication has been produced with the financial support of the Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme of the European Commission. The contents of this publication represents the views of the author only and is her sole responsibility. The European Commission does not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information it contains.

Document control information

Title: Piloting report

Reference WP: 3

Responsible of these Milestone: PROTOM


Author/s: Bruna Falanga Assunta Formato

Contributors:

Dissemination level ☒ CO Confidential, only for members of the Consortium (including the Commission Services)

☐ RE Restricted to a group specified by the Consortium (including the Commission Services)

☐ PP Restricted to other programme participants (including the Commission Services)

☐ PU Public

Status ☐ Draft

☐ WP Manager accepted

☒ Consortium accepted

Deadline 11/09/2019


INDEX

1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 5

2 The ViDaCs serious game construction ................................................................................... 5

2.1 The game Targets ................................................................................................................ 6

2.2 Future releases ..................................................................................................................... 7

2.3 Game dynamics in VR ......................................................................................................... 7

2.4 The “external” observation ................................................................................................. 8

2.4.1 The importance of the operator ...................................................................................... 9

3 Design of scenarios and characters ......................................................................................... 12

3.1 Scenario Construction ....................................................................................................... 12

3.1.1 The home .......................................................................................................................... 12

3.1.2 The Characters ............................................................................................................... 16

3.2 Perspectives and points of view ....................................................................................... 20

3.3 Criteria for choosing commands (movements and actions) ........................................ 20

4 Equipment required ................................................................................................................. 23

4.1 Hardware Features ............................................................................................................ 24

5 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................... 25


INDEX OF PICTURES

Figure 1: Orthographic home plan .................................................................................................. 13

Figure 2: 3D home plan ................................................................................................................... 14

Figure 3: Concept render – different points of view...................................................................... 15

Figure 4: Example of modelling, lighting and texturing.............................................................. 16

Figure 5: 3D rigged woman .............................................................................................................. 17

Figure 6: Detail of 3D rigged hand .................................................................................................. 17

Figure 7: 3D model in wireframe - test of a woman in a fear expression .................................. 18

Figure 8: Render 3D model – complete family ............................................................................. 18

Figure 9: Render children (different age and genre) ................................................................... 19

Figure 10: Render woman and man ................................................................................................ 19

Figure 11: First-person perspective camera .................................................................................... 20

Figure 12: Examples of multiple-choice menu .............................................................................. 22

Figure 13: Hand controllers ............................................................................................................. 23

Figure 14: Oculus Rift S – wearable device .................................................................................... 24


1 Introduction This document, as claimed by to the video linked, wants to describe the criteria of design and

approach in developing the serious game, especially referring to the experience gained by all

project’s partners in the first months of research and development (during the WP 2).

The ViDaCs serious game is an experience in Virtual Reality (VR) entirely developed for

wearable display devices (Oculus Rift S), for this reason its interactive use does not include

the possibility of installation and use in web or desktop mode; only for an explanatory

disclosure of the product, the consortium decided to make an informative video, based on a

video-capture by a direct experience of the game, so as to bring out the dynamics of

interaction and the chosen scenarios.

Although the use of a VR device enables significant emotional processes and clearly

presupposes an exclusive interactive mode, this video could represent the idea of the scenarios

chosen, the structure of the storyboard and the interactive dynamics, the use behaviours and

the effectiveness in transferring the information necessary for the correct interpretation of

the game.

The video-capture certainly is a reductive expedient regarding the dynamic-experiential

element, but efficient enough for a visual evaluation of the interactions, the graphics and the

possible dynamics.

The video-capture also proposes a single game flow, but this flow can change and generate

different "consequences" in the storyboard, depending on the choices made by the player

(perpetrators), especially for the reactions of the child.

Finally, it should be important to consider that this is the release 1.0 of the serious game,

according with the project timeline, that provide possible further developments and

improvements, after the training, verification and testing phase with the operators.

2 The ViDaCs serious game construction ViDaCs serious game is an interactive computer-generated experience in VR that taking place

within a simulated environment. It incorporates mainly auditory and visual feedback, and also

allow other types of emotional feedback that improve the player self-experience. Like the


acronyms says (ViDaCs = Violent Dads in Child Shoes), the player will be a perpetrators that

can live in child shoes during a domestic violence.

To build relevant and realistic scenarios and enhance the virtual experience, all the emerged

elements during the first months of research related to the scheduled steps (in WP 1 e Wp 2)

were finalized. In particular, both the graphic and textual elements, as all the events included

in the construction of the serious game and its storyboard, represent the result of in-depth

checks and considerations emerged through the interviews, workshops, seminars, webinars

and all the others activities conducted during the previous ViDaCs WPs (especially listed in

deliverables n. 2.2 and 3.10).

All reflections made by the project partners were significant, as well as the meeting with some

potential perpetrator, with direct victims, and with children who experienced the violence,

has represented the main references in design the serious game as a virtual transposition of

the real.

In addition to the realism and graphic effectiveness, another very important element during

the development was the immediate usability and the easy understanding of the game rules,

which however will be more carefully evaluated during the training phase scheduled in D 3.4.

We consider that the usability is the main goal to be achieved to break down the inhibitory

wall, enabling the playful mode of relationship and the emotional channel during the entire

experience, enabling the player, even if only virtually, in the scenario of everyday life.

This happen currently allowing the player to enter into "contact" for a few moments with all

the actors (man, woman and child) who are the various figures involved in the phenomenon

of assisted violence, recognizing and partially re-interpreting perceptions, emotions and

representations that they normally encounter in their lives.

2.1 The game Targets

Since ViDaCs specifically aims to favour perpetrators the ability to put themselves in the shoes

of children who witness violence, the serious game was conceived precisely in this perspective

of "double point of view", thus making it possible to see, and somehow to live, the commonly

feeling of a child during episodes of assisted violence, especially for its violent parents

(perpetrators) during the violence often unknow, they totally ignore their existence and

gravity.


To obtain an effective transference, which would allow the identification "in the shoes of ...",

the main targets that we have taken into account in the development phase of the serious

game were the following:

1. Realistic daily scenarios (not luxurious or poverty situations, but ordinary people)

2. Dialogues spontaneous among the characters (ordinary voices that talking about

simple common problems, without stereotyping languages or particular motivational

and emotional situations)

3. Actions / reactions of the child (or adolescent) that show the real hardships that

assisted violence often leads to (relational disorders, eating disorders, violence towards

self and / or towards others, sense of abandonment and / or loneliness, desire to escape,

fears and anxieties in general).

2.2 Future releases

After the presentation of the game scheduled for the 12th month, the observation and piloting

phase will begin (D 3.4), in this phase is going to be necessary above all to evaluate the ease

of use and understanding of the game, according to the opinion of the therapists who are

having to experience it and eventually understand how it can be improved. In fact, during the

testing and experimentation phase of the first game version, the project team aims to

stimulate reflections by the whole Consortium on any changes and improvements that the

serious game needs, especially in terms of usability and understanding.

Important suggested changes will be applied to the final version of the game, to be developed

during the later months (M15 and M16).

2.3 Game dynamics in VR

As stated in the introduction of this document, and according with the project guidelines, the

serious game is entirely usable exclusively with a wearable sensor, Oculus Rift S model type,

for this reason, before the experience starts, an operator have only to help the user to wear

the device and will generally explain that he is going to live an experience in virtual reality in

first person, where his real movements are able to generate actions and reactions in the virtual

scenario.

It should also be explained that the game can be played both sitting or standing, depending

on the degree of immersiveness that the user wants to try, but the inexperienced user is

advised to conduct the experience seated, above all to avoid sickness feeling and dizziness

due to virtual reality, that can easily occur for unaccustomed first time player. Also for this


reason it is advisable that the tutor always remains close to the perpetrators throughout the

whole experience.

When the game starts, the user is already immersed in the virtual scenario.

The first phase of the game, that starts from entering the house to the dispute, the experience

is quite automated and is useful to the user for become familiar with the sensors and with VR

perspective in general.

To facilitate the understanding of gestures and dynamics, the whole game is taking place with

multiple choice menu with which the user has to interact; only after making a choice, an

automatic animation is going to leading the character towards the selected interactive object,

and provoke a reaction in the storytelling.

During the development phase, we have excluded the possibility of walking and move with

real physical movements in the scenario because during the research and experimentation

phase with the partners this type of interaction, even physical, generated not a few problems

in the use of wearable devices. The user can then conduct all the experience from standstill

by automatically moving into the scenario, but he can move the head for looking around, and

thus being able better to "discover" what is happening around him, without having to move

his attention to the movements with the fear of falling or making mistakes.

2.4 The “external” observation

Another important aspect is that the tutor, during the user experience, can observe on an

external monitor what the player sees and lives with the helmet and therefore what he does

in the game, objects with which he interacts, choices he makes, etc. ...

In the testing phase with Consortium, this feature of the software is going to be able to offer

meanwhile for the technicians to adjust and control if something does not work properly in

the software as well as to help the inexperienced user who no longer knows what to do,

without the need to interrupt the experience.

It is important to underline how this feature allows the final operator to observe and interpret

the choices of the perpetrators, thus being able to note them down and later discuss on

together. This then allows the operators and the perpetrators to reflect on whether and how

different choices could affect the progress of the game and therefore of one's life, understand

how important it is to reflect a moment before acting, on how much each little thing


influences the subsequent reaction of both the wife and especially the child's emotional

reactions.

In the same way, the final choice in the game, the "try again" option, is also designed to pay

attention to the "other possibilities" that our life offers. It may also happen that instead the

user puts himself in a pessimistic manner and understands that whatever the actions will be,

the conclusion would have always been the same (as for example occurs in the game regard

to the dispute, where whatever the player would have said or done would have been the same

result, which is just as often happens in real life during a quarrel), also in this case the focus

even more have to be oriented on the other possibilities that there may be anyway, that can

be created! In fact the experience, play back even after some time, could allow us to observe

different behaviours on the part of the perpetrators and pay attention to other behavioural

details.

Finally another important rule for the player, to which the operator must immediately refers

before start the experience, is the importance of impulsiveness in the actions / reactions,

Because the actions to be performed in the game are very simple, therefore the very fact of

not thinking too much in doing them, and therefore reacting to the events, gives rise to greater

dynamism in the conduct of the game and also suggests more truthful and not "distorted"

behaviour.

2.4.1 The importance of the operator

The core of the therapy session is the presence of the operator during all the game experience

time. The therapist must first observe behaviours, unusual gestures, words whispered by the

tester, etc ...

If the tester performs actions in the game he feels involved and reacts with spontaneous

gestures to visual / sound inputs, for example he seems agitated, increases sweating, etc ...

these are all actions that must be codified and considered useful reactions to the final report.

For example, when sudden things happen in the game that in reality would frighten the child

(whether they are sudden noises, listening phrases, etc.) in the same way the user during the

test could be frightened by all those things he does not expect, doing then instinctive

movements and / or gestures; these considerations by the tutor are important because the

reading of body language is already a sign of success because it indicates an emotional

upheaval, be it linked to fear, to non-trust. In cases of excessive emotional involvement, it

may even happen that the user for example instinctively takes off the worn device / viewer, in


this case the emotional effectiveness of the game would be even clearer and how these signals

can really indicate strong emotions with high impact.

Finally, at the end of the game there will be the last choice, the most important for the

subsequent therapy sessions, that is important and indicative for the therapist who is

observing the perpetrators game experiences. The user in fact is going to come back in his

shoes and, after seeing the pain of the child, will have the following "choices":

A. Run to your child

B. Continua the quarrel

C. Try again and play your game different to avoid all this, try to redo your choices, maybe

you can change the course of your experience.

Then, depending on the choice the player will make, the game offers a last suggestion:

If he chose A: Go to him but remember that doing it "later" is too late, the wounds, especially

the non-physical ones, don't heal easily, you have to stop before all this happens.

If he chose B: Are you sure your family deserves this? Quarrel is not the solutions, try to

change your actions, your life!

If he chose C: Try again to play, but remember that life is not a game and you can’t go back,

we hope you can act differently even when the choices to be made will not be in a videogame,

but in the real life!

Now the game is over, and these final choices then start the phase of real psychological

approach, following the game experience.

As mentioned above, these final choices want to be starting points for in-depth reflections, if

the player chooses the "play again" option, a choice that implies the desire to try again, ia a

way to see how the trend changes when he succeeds to change "something", this kind of player

is a user who puts himself in an active mode, who wants to try again, because from a playful

point of view he was attracted by the experience and wants to repeat it, even just out of

curiosity, but it means that the serious game is valid because it has stimulated, intrigued.

The possibility to try again then, metaphorically, wants to open the doors to confrontation,

to the admission that a change can be possible, based on the principle that in the life back

you do not return and you cannot change the choices made or the reactions that they have

aroused, even more, we do not change what a child / adolescent has felt and experienced.


Everything in the game wants us to reflect on the importance of the moment before, the

moment in which we can and we must reflect on the right thing to do, the moment of the real

choses.

For all these reasons, therefore, the project phase that involves the "training" of the therapist

(D 3.3 - D 3.4) are going to be the most important of the ViDaCs development, both for

conducting the game and writing the final interview from which the main reflections and

reports will emerge.


3 Design of scenarios and characters In this chapter the graphic and interactive design of the serious game is then analysed.

We focus on the choices made for the realization of the scenarios, the project from a purely

graphic point of view, and the salient actions of the storyboard, making reference to the

criteria that emerged from the various meetings of the ViDaCs project (key words and

predominant elements) to validate its consistency.

3.1 Scenario Construction

The key words that emerged from all the group work sessions for the realization of the

scenario were:

Realism and familiarity of the environments

Not too chaotic environments/rooms (to focus attention on a few details)

Contrasting atmospheres (different sounds and lights in different moments of pathos)

importance of ambient colours (for example the rotten green for the child's

displacement, the red for the father's anger)

Post Graphic effects that amplify distortions, fear and anxiety

So the virtual set in which the events narrated in the storyboard take place, as it source from

these keywords, reminds us of a common medium-sized apartment), excluding luxury villas

or apartments because they are far from our everyday imaginary.

The context must be as common as possible, in fact a scenario too far-fetched may not make

the user particularly involved, one might be led to think superficially that "these things

happen far from my world, in contexts too different from mine".

Another fundamental choice for the construction of the scenarios was that of an essential and

ordinary furnishing that obviously offers more advantages, the most important is to limit and

at the same time focus the subject's attention on the key elements, described into the script,

thus avoiding confusing and distracting the player.

3.1.1 The home

All the actions and reactions take place into a normal house. Its design scheme was created

like a cinema set, after carefully selecting the most effective storyboard for the development


of the game, and establishing the game dynamics and rooms needed to adequately support

the actions planned in the storytelling.

Figure 1: Orthographic home plan


Figure 2: 3D home plan

All the necessary 3D assets for the scenarios, have been created starting from the modelling

of each one, then to the unwrap and texturing procedures of the same, at last we move on to

the rig for the necessary animations (opening doors, switching on lights, TV, etc.). Here are

some details of shots and perspectives inside the home.


Figure 3: Concept render – different points of view


Figure 4: Example of modelling, lighting and texturing

3.1.2 The Characters

The actors (characters) for the script (father, mother and child of different ages according to

the three established age groups 3-6 / 6-9 / 9 -13), were chosen and created to accomplish

plausible and realistic actions. The 3D models created were then rigged and studied in every

detail with specific bland shape for relevant realistic movements and facial expressions.

To Rigged 3D models is the techniques to animate characters with modelling software to

perform movements. A rig is like a skeleton of a 3D model, which lets you move and pose it

with little effort. Rigged models can be used for art projects, games, movies or VR experiences.


Figure 5: 3D rigged woman

Figure 6: Detail of 3D rigged hand


Figure 7: 3D model in wireframe - test of a woman in a fear expression

Below are the reference models made for the game:

Figure 8: Render 3D model – complete family


Figure 9: Render children (different age and genre)

Figure 10: Render woman and man


3.2 Perspectives and points of view

The game is developed in VR with a first-person view and only with a change to bird's eye

perspective. The first-person point of view is the typical perspective use in VR for a player that

is "in the body" of the main actor, so he always sees his body from above.

Figure 11: First-person perspective camera

The perspective of the camera only changes during the transfers, moment in which the player

leaves the initial body, he is not himself, to enter the child's body. During this moment the

first-person perspective change and become a bird's eye perspective; with the bird's eye

perspective the player can see the instants of the quarrel with the wife to then return to being

in first person when the player become the child (the camera moves in automatic mode).

3.3 Criteria for choosing commands (movements and actions)

In the game all interactions take place through multiple choice menus insert in the GUI (Game

User Interface), they are activated during the virtual experience and with them one interacts

through simple commands present on management controller of the wearable sensor.

As already anticipated, this choice was made to limit the actions in total autonomy of the

character, above all for the movements of the body type "to walk" to avoid consistent effects

of motion sickness often tied to the VR for not habitual users. Therefore all the movements


inside the house will take place with pre-calculated animations, which will be activated after

the various choices made by the player.

The interact elements of the user interface (multiple-choice menu) appear floating in the

scene as like 3D elements suspended but not intrusive, with them the user interacts through

the use of hand controllers on the device.


Figure 12: Examples of multiple-choice menu


Figure 13: Hand controllers

4 Equipment required To allow the use of the serious game, the presence of the wearable device and a PC, on which

the reference software application will be install, is always required.

This necessary hardware kit is giving to the consortium partners during the one-day learning

session, then the partners will define their shared management.


4.1 Hardware Features

The software will run on a Desktop PC with an 8 core Intel CPU, 16GB of system memory

and a NVIDIA RTX 2080 GPU.

The selected VR device is the Oculus Rift S, a second-generation VR headset with inside-out

tracking, a technology which allows easy and immediate setup of the hardware in any room.

The Oculus Rift S offers a 2560x1440 80Hz LCD screen panel for reduced screen-door effect

and a 115° field of view for a complete immersive experience. The headset rests on the head

through the special headband designed exclusively for the Oculus Rift S in order to sit

comfortably on the head for hours, the band also has two integrated speakers.

The Oculus Rift S includes two motion controllers called Oculus Touch, which offers

positional tracking over six degrees of freedom, three buttons, two triggers, and analogue

stick and finger gesture recognition. The controllers can be used to point to, grab, and

activate virtual objects.

As a safety measure the Oculus Rift S offers the ability to show a visual alert where obstacles

could be and using the integrated cameras can instantaneously pause the application to

show the real world if the user moves beyond the safe limits of the obstacle-free area.

Figure 14: Oculus Rift S – wearable device


5 Conclusions The serious game is not a medical treatment, but it will be only a new experimentation with

participatory and experiential method, aim at inducing an emotional experience, which will

facilitate access to the most intimate social representations, linked to in familiar violent

contexts. The most important consideration is that Virtual technology of a serious game and

its modern language can to increase motivation to the treatment.

According to ViDaCs project, the perpetrators should lower their denial mechanism, typically

used by the perpetrator, increasing their awareness of the harms of witnessing violence.

The guidelines of ViDaCs project, in fact explain that ViDaCs is a complete model analytical

plan (deliverable 2.5), suggest intervention increasing perpetrator awareness of what happens

“a moment before” the violent action and increasing, also, their motivation to request help

through emotional experiences, that stimulate their father responsibility.

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Deliverable n°3.2 ViDaCs Serious Game Serious Game PRO… · VIDACS Deliverable3 2 - the serious game Protom 5 1 Introduction This document, as claimed by to the video linked, wants