Angie's Party

At the most experimental end of our work is Angie’s Party - a branching narrative sitcom created in virtual reality for Google Cardboard in 2018, for the BBC’s experimental content arm, BBC Taster.

Narratively speaking, Angie’s Party is an interactive sitcom in which the user is a fly-on-the-wall at a teenager house party. Characters enter or leave the room at key moments in the story and players must decide whom to follow in order to advance the narrative. At the climax, all the characters resolve the story in the same room, though the perspective of the viewer might change depending on which characters they have followed and how much of the story they have uncovered! This encourages the user to play again and choose another path, and by doing so, make sense of a story where they may only have experienced one perspective.

Making a VR app for the first time, as well as writing a branching narrative presented some unique challenges. The format of the project is similar to a TV or live action sitcom, but with the player at the heart of the action. Most of the main action takes place directly in front of the viewer, but we have hidden little gags and interesting items around the room to reward those who do look around the house in the 360 degrees available to them!

The interactive sections in the experience are controlled using the ‘long gaze’ method of interaction – the player needs to look at a character for a set period of time in order to make a selection. This method of selection is the most accessible for users of casual VR (such as Google Cardboard) who may not be using a headset with an input button, and we added a viewing reticle at these points so users know when they’re in the process of making a selection.

This experimental piece of content is still available to download here on the Taster website.  If you want to have a play you’ll need to get hold of a Google Cardboard VR viewer.

Credits
No items found.

Related Projects

No items found.