genee

Finite room. Infinite space.

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Inspiration

Our inspiration comes from the idea that the Metaverse is inevitable and will impact every aspect of society.

The Metaverse has recently gained lots of traction with tech giants like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft investing into it.

Furthermore, the pandemic has shifted our real-world experiences to an online environment. During lockdown, people were confined to their bedrooms, and we were inspired to find a way to basically have access to an infinite space while in a finite amount of space.

What it does

  • Our project utilizes non-Euclidean geometry to provide a new medium for exploring and consuming content
  • Non-Euclidean geometry allows us to render rooms that would otherwise not be possible in the real world
  • Dynamically generates personalized content, and supports infinite content traversal in a 3D context
  • Users can use their space effectively (they're essentially "scrolling infinitely in 3D space")
  • Offers new frontier for navigating online environments
    • Has applicability in endless fields (business, gaming, VR "experiences")
    • Changing the landscape of working from home
    • Adaptable to a VR space

How we built it

We built our project using Unity. Some assets were used from the Echo3D Api. We used C# to write the game. jsfxr was used for the game sound effects, and the Storyblocks library was used for the soundscape. On top of all that, this project would not have been possible without lots of moral support, timbits, and caffeine. 😊

Challenges we ran into

  • Summarizing the concept in a relatively simple way
  • Figuring out why our Echo3D API calls were failing (it turned out that we had to edit some of the security settings)
  • Implementing the game. Our "Killer Tetris" game went through a few iterations and getting the blocks to move and generate took some trouble. Cutting back on how many details we add into the game (however, it did give us lots of ideas for future game jams)
  • Having a spinning arrow in our presentation
  • Getting the phone gif to loop

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • Having an awesome working demo 😎
  • How swiftly our team organized ourselves and work efficiently to complete the project in the given time frame 🕙
  • Utilizing each of our strengths in a collaborative way 💪
  • Figuring out the game logic 🕹️
  • Our cute game character, Al 🥺
  • Cole and Natalie's first in-person hackathon 🥳

What we learned

Mathias

  • Learning how to use the Echo3D API
  • The value of teamwork and friendship 🤝
  • Games working with grids

Cole

  • Using screen-to-gif
  • Hacking google slides animations
  • Dealing with unwieldly gifs
  • Ways to cheat grids

Natalie

  • Learning how to use the Echo3D API
  • Editing gifs in photoshop
  • Hacking google slides animations
  • Exposure to Unity is used to render 3D environments, how assets and textures are edited in Blender, what goes into sound design for video games

What's next for genee

  • Supporting shopping
    • Trying on clothes on a 3D avatar of yourself
  • Advertising rooms
    • E.g. as your switching between rooms, there could be a "Lululemon room" in which there would be clothes you can try / general advertising for their products
  • Custom-built rooms by users
  • Application to education / labs
    • Instead of doing chemistry labs in-class where accidents can occur and students can get injured, a lab could run in a virtual environment. This would have a much lower risk and cost. …the possibility are endless

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