The Tutorial for Virtual Battlegrounds was not made at the time when I joined CyberDreamVR, the main focus at that time was put towards forming the game to be able to successfully achieve the original vision of having a VR Battle Royale game. Sometime in the spring of 2019, I was tasked with taking up the helm of building out the Tutorial. At the start, the very first iteration of the Tutorial was partially built out through whiteboxing already by another designer before it was handed off to me.
After going through multiple iterations and changes of direction, that initial vision of the Tutorial had to be scrapped due to it being too large and the duration being too long to be fun and concise. This Tutorial was built by me from the ground up on design with the focus of it having an open feel, quick to finish, and more involved with the player.
On top of doing the main design for the Tutorial, I also took charge of the UI design for the Tutorial. There needed to be a display to have instructions and visual guides for the player to help assist them and learn the controls of the game. Above are some of the art that I made including the final banner design. The UI also guides the player through the Tutorial as the player needs to do certain actions in order to progress.
Above is the start room that the player spawns in when loading into the Tutorial. In this room the player is given a little room to teach some of the basic movement in the game like walking and sprinting. The theme for the rest of the space used for the Tutorial is more akin to construction and unfinished structures other than the warehouses. Due to that, having these wooden beams, plywood walls and ceilings, and construction-like props were a must in completing the whole look and feel.
This is the gun range portion of the Tutorial. A big inspiration for the gun range obstacles and structures for this part was paintball obstacles and having them be simple yet effective in showing different sight-lines and ways to approach an area. I wanted to create this enclosed area and have these varying objects for the player to see to help train them and be engaged for as long as they'd like.
A small detail is the gun on the center that is splayed out with the different attachments close to the right area that they'd go on. I intended for this to help show where these attachments would go on a typical rifle such as that.
After the player is done with the gun range, a door on the left warehouse will open to reveal the 2nd and last part of the Tutorial. The interior of the warehouse teaches the last part of the main controls for Virtual Battlegrounds. The interior of the warehouse took a fair amount of changes to get a good feel down and really use the huge space properly. Here, the player meets a stack of storage containers where they then learn how to climb. Once reaching the summit, they'll see a small network of ziplines to use. Lastly, the player comes up to a pool of water that'll teach them how to swim in the game. They hop in and hop out on the other end.
A small aspect that I'm glad to achieve with the Tutorial was that it loops naturally. The start room also acts as the end room, the ramp down to the door after the swimming portion leads to the same door that is seen in the start room to the left. I really like paying attention to small things that help tie in whole experiences and can add an enriching sense to what the player will go through.