Dopamine Dive
Dopamine Dive is a virtual reality experience made as satire to reflect the issues of addiction and hyperactiveness that many people struggle with today.
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This is a solo project
Made with:
Research
10.2%
of people diagnosed with ADHD (1997-2016)
74.3%
of smartphone users feel they have a dependency
13%
of Americans reported increased substance use since pandemic
103 sec.
decrease in attention span on any screen since 2004
Premise
Users will be placed in a virtual reality environment mimicking a young person's room. In this experience, the user will have to manage their dependencies all at once. This is in the form of looking between different screens and indulging in substances, in this case junk food and nicotine.
User Interface
This a timer showing the time elapsed. Every thirty seconds the health bars drain faster. these intervals are represented by the red bar.
This is a video clip of Subway Surfers, a popular mobile game that plays on the user's UI throughout the whole experience. This is a reference to a popular joke that young people cannot do anything without watching these kinds of video clips.
Each health bar represents a different action the user can partake in. The health bars will drain over time. By doing each action the user can fill up the bars. the experience ends when one of the bars becomes empty
Level Design
This VR experience is stationary, so the level design is straight forward. The main goal for the level design was to enstill a mundane and dreary feeling within the player. This was accomplished through the dim lighting, lack of color, and the tightness of the room.