MyVrPet

Virtual pets, real bonds

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Inspiration

I always wanted to bring the gap between the virtual world and a real one as close as possible. I believe we should be able interact with virtual objects as easy as we do it in real life - with our bare hands, touches, gestures. We are getting more and more digitized, so it is absolutely a must to discover ways how to connect those two worlds we live in together naturally.

What it does

My app is a game, but at the same time it is something more - it is an experience of a real pet living in your house. A real life Tamagotchi with a pet that is always by your side

How we built it

I understood from day one that natural interaction is a must for this type of experience, so I deep dived on the hand physics and active ragdoll technology for the pet in Unity 6. My main goal was to make the virtual pet react to your hand touches as if you would touch a real thing. Of course I also needed to implement all of the Main Tamagotchi mechanics like sleeping and eating. There are also games with your cat available. Everything blends naturally to the UI available on your hands.

Challenges we ran into

My main challenge was to make an advanced pet AI system, the one that would react to every need and action of the pet in real time and adjust it's behavior accordingly. I use NodeCanvas system to make this a reality. Also, hand to pet interaction - a main feature of the app was a big challenge as well. I tried to make my pet as close to natural as possible - hands should make the pet react and bend under them.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I am very proud that I managed to ship this app on time while working on it solo. I am also proud of the whole interaction system I build for the pet, it adapts in realtime to user actions and pet needs which was a big accomplishment.

What we learned

I learned a lot on how to work with Unity overall, how to write scripts(with the help of AI when I don't know something). I really liked NodeCanvas Behavior Tree system and it was a pleasure to learn how to use it.

What's next

I want to bring more games to enjoy with your pet and bring more pets to the game as well. My dream is that someday our home will be filled with virtual objects and pets and we won't need to enter a specific app to see them.

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