We've all visited a carnival. The festive atmosphere is community oriented with a general sense of awe and wonderment. The midway is a section where people play games, compete for prizes, and eat foods that we know aren't good for us, but we indulge nonetheless. NVIDIA's VR Funhouse doesn't have food, but it is a collection of seven mini games. The player accesses each game from the controller and interaction involves shooting arrows, slashing with a sword, swinging mallets, tossing basketballs, and shooting paint-filled silly guns.

For our project, we are going to create something a little different. Instead of reloading the world to start another game, our players will traverse the virtual space, taking small steps or teleporting, to access the play areas confined within the carnival environment. In this manner, we will be able to discuss mobility along with design, scripting, testing, and deployment on the Rift platform.

As part of the preproduction phase, we have taken the liberty of outlining the midway concept. We reviewed various carnival layouts and chose a design which should meet our needs. Figure 7.2 includes a sketch of three design options. We chose Option C, which puts our game booths in a semi circle allowing for freedom of movement and a line of sight to each game. This was our approach, but more than for any of the other projects in this book, we urge you to experiment with your own layouts and use our idea as a starting point for your own work: