Alienware
Portal
How Can We Create Immersion
in the Future of Gaming?
Partnered* with Alienware to conceptualize a gaming console for 2035.
4 Weeks | 150 Hours | 2024
Skills | Future Casting, User Experience, Ergonomics
Software | Solidworks, Keyshot, Adobe Suite
VR Isn’t The Answer. Why?
The frontier of immersion in gaming usually points to VR. But it’s an incomplete solution.
Physical
Eye Strain
Extended VR usage has been documented to cause strain and blurry vision. Not really ideal considering people can game for hours on end.
Social Isolation
VR games are very rarely multiplayer. Even if they are it's not the same as playing split screen on a couch. The social setting is a big draw for many casual gamers.
Game Dev Nightmare
VR games are hard to make, plain and simple. They cost high in development and often don't reach the same reception as PC or console games.
Casting a Far Line
Discovering emerging trends in technology and societal behavior through in-depth market research and user interviews.
How Might We Create...
Freedom
How can we prioritize ease of use?
Community
How do we encourage and facilitate virtual and physical social interaction?
Connection
How do we fully immerse the player?
What Could
This Even Be?
How do you pinpoint the future? We tackled this unique challenge by going broad and created various possible directions, each approaching flexibility, immersion, and inclusivity in unique ways.
Playing Pretend
Creating an intuitive user experience was one (if not the most important) of our primary goals.
To test out our ideas, we created physical prototypes and recorded short user scenarios to validate them.
Immersion Without VR
Our research and concept scenario testing lead us to a potential tech stack that addressed the shortcomings of VR while creating a new immersive gaming experience
Ultrasound Haptics
Projection Mapping
Controller Tracked Gesture Inputs
Digital Interactions through AI
Prototyping digital interactions alongside form iteration to drive home the idea of a phygital experience.
Further research and understanding of AI functionality and training data structure allowed us to be grounded while exploring new ideas.
Proportion Play
As our concept continued to solidify, we iterated on the primary touch points through CAD and 3D printing, making sure to test user scenarios along the way.
Yes, It’s a Spaceship
Since the primary touch points for the user are the controller rings, we centered the main console around them.
We strived for a cohesive form language that feels intentional in both modes of use, with or without the controllers.
A Look Into The Future
Alienware Portal is an all-in-one gaming console, designed to bring the game world into our own.
This concept is an educated imagining of what gaming could look like a decade from today.
Become Your Heroes
Imagine feeling resistance as you pull back on a trigger, or the fluttering cross your fingertips as you let out a magical blast.
Portal comes with two Morph Rings, wearable controllers equipped with advanced ultrasound haptics, accelerometers, and proximity sensors.
Programmable Gestures
Similar to button mapping, Morph Rings allow you to map your own gestures to button inputs.
Slash downwards for a light attack, or swing up for a heavy. Pull back to notch an arrow, or bring up both hands to peer down iron sights.
The game is your oyster.
When wearing Morph Rings, your hands become the controllers, your finger movements correspond to button inputs, and ultrasound haptics means you can feel haptic feedback without having to touch anything.
Placing your thumb on the joypad lets you use your wrist as a joystick, for both camera and movement.
Freedom
to Choose
Morph Rings also come with a touch pad that allow users to play games without gestures as well.
The Game World,
In Yours
The main Portal console uses projection mapping and it’s on board AI to recognize what’s happening in game and projects relevant ambient colors and textures around your gaming space. It can react as well, communicating status effects or in game environmental information.
One More Take
We tested out our final user scenarios to get a comprehensive idea of the concept and how it performs.
