Games

VR became a real thing just as I was starting grad school, and throughout my studies I was jealous of those who could devote time to playing around building things for it. Now that I'm done with school I can join those ranks myself, and I've been using Unreal Engine 5 and the Meta Quest headset to try it out.

I tend to make games which focus on interacting with some underlying system or simulation. VR is a great medium for such games/toys since it allows the player to be embodied in the game and physically engage with it in a very natural way. However, most of my projects have been 'toy' simulations meant to explore a single concept or mechanic rather than be a complete playable game. This page will show some of the more interesting/complete ones.

1. Airfoil Flight Sim

   Airfoil is a flight simulator that challenges the player to engage with the physics of flight. Instead of attempting to replicate realistic airplanes and procedures like most flight sims, Airfoil's airplanes are made from modular parts which the player can freely reconfigure and experiment with. Designing the flight model around this concept allows the game to naturally model interesting interactions like structural failures, banner or glider towing, and more.

   Airfoil is built in Unreal Engine 5 to run on the Meta Quest VR platform. I started working on the it during flight training in an attempt to better understand how airplanes fly, and since then I've kept improving it on the side after finding the game surprisingly fun to play around with. Currently the game features:

   1. Four diverse airplanes made of modular parts
   2. Fully dynamic and reconfigurable airplane wings, control surfaces, controls, and instruments
   3. Large (empty) island containing four airports
   4. Three timed checkpoint races
   5. Banner towing challenge
   6. Crop dusting challenge

   I'm going to continue adding features and iterating on the game, and may release it in some capacity once it's reasonably playable.