Behind the Scenes: Pokemon VR Illustration

I was a huge fan of VR ever since the first Oculus announcement. There are some who argue VR has no future, but if you really look at the progress the technology made in recent years, it went from gimmicky nausea-inducing experiment to fully usable tool and gaming platform. And I think we're in for more treats along the way.

I was watching some Star Trek story summary recently and there was a scene with a holodeck - a room on a spaceship made to simulate all kinds of scenarios and environments (training, relax and entertainment). And as I was watching it it just struck me, that I have that now at home. Right next to me in a box. Just put on goggles and to the unknown I go.

Of course, it misses the full immersion and haptics, but still, pretty good considering my first mobile phone had only calling and text messages. This inspired me to create a holodeck diorama, but in a more grounded and present way. With the character wearing at least some kind of device.

Visit the full Pinboard here

There was still a missing piece - the environment. What should the virtual content be? I went through several ideas and decided on some kind of outdoor nature environment. If the design is to be understood at a first glance, there needs to be a strong contrast between the room elements and the VR content. So having a futuristic metal room scaffold with the trees and the meadow inside should do the trick.

But to make it actually interesting, I had to think about some engaging content to put there. Some experience or game. Simply walking in the nature with your VR on might be nice and relaxing, but won't keep you for long. So naturally, I was looking for a game idea and thought about some games, that only need grass, trees and some rocks. And as I'm occasionally playing Pokemon GO with my son, it struck me as a perfect candidate for VR game. Honestly, I'm surprised there isn't an official version of this, only a free fan-made thing that can be sideloaded into Quest (I don't own Quest).

You know what I have to write next. I choose you Pikachu!

Really, it was the ideal choice. Yellow contrast on the nature background. Well recognized and popular character. And clear distinction between the reality and VR.

I sketched in some room layout, the door and some sci-fi room elements. I really liked the room grid on some references with the door just placed in the environment, so I went with that. I really needed to separate the player character from the virtual world, so I sketched in some kind of platform, he would be standing on, to ground him into the room scaffolding, rather than the virtual nature.

Of course, there is quite a lot of erasing and repeated sketching involved, until I find the composition I like to look at. And that's what this phase is all about. Being playful with ideas and testing layouts without any long-hours commitment, that might not work in the end. After some tweaking, I was ready to launch Blender.

You can watch the process video on Youtube