A casual arcade-style sports game adapting the pub-favourite of Pool for VR.
My Work
- Liaising with Clients: Kept open communication through regular client calls, updates, and documentation to ensure both parties were aligned in game direction and scope.
- Leading the Team: As lead designer, led strike teams to develop features, support the client’s needs, and worked closely with production to keep the game on scope and quality.
- Adapting the Game: Designed the UX flow to best adapt the real-world sport into VR, as well as supporting UI for user-flow for match-finding and in game score tracking for both single and multiplayer.
- Designing the Content: Ideated 100 individual collectable bags and boards, covering myriad themes to represent players from around the world.
Gameplay
The game followed the International Pool Association rules, keeping the mechanics accessible world-wide.
Players take turns striking the white cue ball with their cue, with the goal of being the first to sink the black “8-Ball” into a pocket. The challenge? Pocketing the 8-Ball is a foul until you’ve cleared all of your own balls first.
Additional rules such as legally pocketing a ball granting the active player an extra turn, and the skill of lining up the perfect shot through geometry and ball-spin make for an engaging and already popular game experience.
To overcome the lack of tangible physicality of both the cue and table, a novel mechanic for aiming your shot, adjusting the angle of striking the cue ball, and tuning the strength of your strike captures the feel of real-world pool in pool halls set around the world.
UI/UX Design
Carrying through lessons learned from ForeVR Cornhole, ForeVR Pool still presented new challenges. The new user flows were more complicated than expected, and the client’s desire for expanding bots for singe-player, were some of these new challenges.
This was where intense user-testing and iteration proved its value, allowing me to still meet both the client and player’s needs.
Content Design
Owen Bass 