INTRO

The First VR (Virtual Reality) Learning Game About Chanukah

The Chanukah Experience is the first VR game built to educate about Chanukah (i.e. Hanukkah). Chanukah is the eight-day long Jewish festival that commemorates the victory of the Jewish Maccabee fighters over would-be Greek conquerors. In this unique game, users are transported into virtual places and immersed into playful experiences by spinning a dreidel, cooking latkes, treasure hunting, and lighting a menorah. The client satisfaction was very high, and it was played all over the world during Chanukah season in 2019.

Project Analysis

When I was working in Yokey Pokey VR, our team had been commissioned to develop VR educational game about Chanukah. We defined this project goal with the client Chabad and listed the major requirements.

GOAL

Maximize the effect of education about the essential culture and origin of Chanukah and provide creative and playful family activities to celebrate this Jewish festival.

TARGET USERS

Students who are +6 years old, adults who are interested in Chanukah, and family units who would like to spend Chanukah together.

TARGET SETTINGS

Home, classrooms, and public spaces (e.g. convention centers, malls, Jewish centers)

CRITERIA

• Deliver the essence of Chanukah in gameplay and visual art

• Accessible and intuitive user experience with no extra guidelines

• Learning effect with fun and playful activities

• The entire experience is within 10 minutes

CHALLENGES

How might we maximize VR’s learning effects in educating Chanukah?

VR has proven its positive effects in education - science, medical, art, workforce training, soft skills, etc. Then what could be the best use of VR to teach Chanukah? We listed VR’s educational effects.

RESEARCH

VR’s Positive Learning Effects

Research source : “How VR In Education Will Change How We Learn And Teach” by Nick Babich

• Better sense of place

• Scale learning experience

• Learn by doing

Keyword Map

For in-depth understanding of Chanukah, our team made this keywords collection based on research (research source from Chabad, Britannica, and history.com). Once we freely put cards with keywords, then group them according to the amount with 11 labels.

Key Research Insights

After the research and keyword mapping, we found that VR’s education effects and the essence of Chanukah are closely related to each other.

• Chanukah is a festival full of activities.

  Gameplay should be a learning by doing. Students will actively learn by doing them in virtual world.

• The right understanding of the history of Chanukah is important.

  Gameplay should be informative about history. Game should deliver its information well throughout the play.

• Use the VR’s strength to transport players to the ancient history of Judaism.

  In virtual world, we can transcend time and space. Use the best of VR’s effects in education.

• Kindling the light is the heart of Chanukah activities.

  Gameplay should deal with kindling the light as its major part.

GAME DESIGN

Major Gameplay

Based on the research, we did ideation on what could be the informative and playful activities for this game. The main game flow is as follows.

Game Flow and Score System

We designed the detail flow of the each game step. The gameplay should be followed up by achievement and rewards. So we set different criteria for each game stage.

1. Spin dreidel : Dreidel is 4-sided spinning top and each side has a different Hebrew letter. Each letter has a different score. Players are given 3 opportunities to spin the dreidel. When the dreidel stops, players score according to the letter it shows. After the 3rd spinning, it goes directly to the next step.

2. Cook latkes : Players are given 1 minute to cook latkes. Latkes are being cooked over the stove and when they are perfectly cooked, player should move them to the plate. Players earn the score according to the number of latkes moved to the plate. But if latkes are undercooked or overcooked, scores are lower.

3. Treasure hunt : In the ruins of Jewish temple, players should find a jug of oil in 1 minute. When they find it before 1 minute is over, the game goes to the next step. There are 5 other Chanukah objects and Jewish symbols to find, and they all have different scores.

4. Light menorah : Menorah is there unlit. After the prayer of blessing, players light up the each branch of menorah left to right.

TAKEAWAYS

Key Aesthetic Insights

I established aesthetic strategy for game visual that is to convey the core of Chanukah and enhance immersive and engaging player experience.

• REAL BUT UNREAL

  Familiar setting which is likely in real life, but somewhat looking odd and unreal. Such as slightly defying gravity, putting ordinary objects in a different arrangement or size.

• GEOMETRICIZE EVERYTHING

  Add abstract touch because this game is dealing with religion. I wanted players would feel they are in between reality and ideal world.

• HIGH BRIGHTNESS CONTRAST AND VIBRANT COLOR

  Since the “light” is a very important element of Chanukah, I wanted to give high contrast in luminosity. Used saturated and solid color for abstract aesthetic.

• BLUE AND GOLD VARIATIONS

  Blue is the main color for Chanukah decoration and it’s often associated with Jewish faith. Gold is associated with light, and its color is similar to the flame of candles or menorah. I wanted use the variations of these two colors.

PROCESS

Sketches

VR Asset Creation Pipelines

OUTCOMES

Game Visual Art

Game UI Design

UI Design for HMD

Wireframes

Game UI Outcomes

Playtesting

We performed playtesting for each iterations and improved project according to the feedback. Playtesters were client, my students from VR classes, and coworkers from other departments.

“I learned a lot about Chanukah.”

“Very interesting and satisfying experience.”

“Very clean and smooth.”

Incorporating Feedbacks

I improved every iterations with feedbacks from playtesters, mostly client had constructive opinions to integrate. Major improvements are as follows.

• Develop a teleport system for Oculus Go to move around in virtual space.

  Traditional PC game WASD style could cause motion sickness in VR.

• Provide guidelines for each game stage in visual and audio.

  The players should need no extra guideline. The reason why we provided audio is to raise accessibility to the people who can’t read.

• Keep visual consistency in UI system.

  UI system’s visual should be matched with the 3D gameplay world so that users can play with no confusion or second thoughts.

Press & Awareness

The Chanukah Experience was played at +50 events in the United States associated with the client Chabad. And +20 major publications including Mashable and Timeout released articles about The Chanukah Experience.