Chinatown in Space
Storyboarding Metaphors
How can real-world totems be used to world-build an immersive and familiar world?
Lexical Neologisms
My experience and time in Manhattan Chinatown has always been in the chattering around Chinese chess tables in Columbus Park, and the frantic queues that line Mott and Bayard Street outside of Dim Sum restaurants.
Neologisms like parkclave (part + enclave) and chronotope (time + space) allowed me to capture the quintessence of diasporic Chinatown in a virtual environment.
Technical Implementation
Creating a densely populated world with NPC behavior and interaction logic.
Immersive Player Engagement
An AI-driven NPC system was devised to populate the environment dynamically and respond intuitively to the player's presence. By leveraging Mass Spawner, Zone Shapes, and Behavior Trees, the city environment has planned spawning, and adapts to the player with different walking patterns to enhance the overall immersion.
