Puppet Knight

Solo Project

Spring 2020 - Spring 2022

Puppet Knight is a short VR experience that explores the concept of depersonalization. It features a unique physics-based method of movement in VR, as well as IK animations. It uses what were at the time experimental Unity packages to deliver a truly unique experience.

Design document: [Link] .

Concept art:

Promise, the Puppet Knight

Prospect, the First Explorer

A cool fish

What I did

Lessons learned

I am very fond of Puppet Knight; it was my first more independant code project. However, I made some serious mistakes with its development:

I should test sooner and more often

As a new developer doing something without tutorials, I overcommitted to design choices before sufficient testing. In future projects, I adopted a strategy of slower, more deliberate developement: paying close attention to whether or not a mechanic meets design goals at each step of the way.

I need to be critical about which features to include

As a game, Puppet Knight was a failure. As a short novel VR experience, I think it succeeded. This is because I spent nearly all of my development time on the IK walking system. If I wanted to make a game instead of a short non-game, I would have had to prioritize more fiercely and possibly I wouldn't have completed the IK walk system at all. While I was free to not do that for this project, it is something to keep in mind on projects with more clear outcomes requirements.

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