Morlan Gallery Event: Act 3!
In the first week of October of this year, HVRE got to attend Morlan Gallery at Transylvania University, once again, to show off this year's GoogleVR project known as "Dreams;" a creative amalgamation of technology and the personal dreams of our individual developers, combined to create a digital art gallery full of 10 different interactive installations/experiences. During the last two events, we got to present alongside a premiere duo of VR technology here in Lexington, Kentucky, as part of a themed gallery with virtual reality at the helm.
With this latest - and last - event, Shea Rembold and myself got to speak about and show off "Dreams" for an hour to local students, gallery-goers, and random onlookers, alike. For the first half of the presentation, we got to reminisce about earlier projects (involving "Haunted Pixels" and "Mortimer's Mansion") and how those games helped our group evolve, eventually taking us on a new path this year, steering away from the horror genre of the past two. We also went into some details on the processes of what it takes to make a video game using C# and Unity, and added in our perspectives on how developing for a VR medium can be different from working on a regular title. As the showcase portion came to a close, we had a small Q&A with the fairly large group that attended - with people of all kinds and creeds - asking us more about HVRE, itself (how one could attend and get involved and the like), and wondering more about the overall process of the development of Dreams.
During the second half, we mingled with students, teachers, artists, news reporters, and anyone else willing to lend an ear or an opinion, and also got to strap in those willing to take a ride through our engineered, digital art gallery, to show them, firsthand, how VR can be different from other modes of play (consoles, PC, handhelds, etc.). Once all was said and done, the wonderful curator of the gallery applauded, congratulated, and thanked us for our involvement in this event, and hoped we would possibly consider coming back next year if we, indeed, had something else to show off! We, at HVRE, are extremely grateful to Transylvania University for their willingness to give us a role in their gallery this year, curator Andrea Fisher for her constant excitement for our cause, and for Joel Darland's amazing reporting from his news site (under-main.com) about our humble little game.
Thanks to everyone who came out to either one or all of the Morlan events this year, and we can't wait to show off Dreams one last time for one last event; that of the Lexplay Convention, later this week, at Rupp Arena downtown. Hope to see you all then!
