For one of my Game and Media Technology Master projects, I wanted to work on a commercial project in The Netherlands, and I ended up joining the Para Parachute team as a programmer. Para Parachute is a VR parachute simulator that was started by a few students at the HKU school. What is special about Para Parachute is the custom hardware which includes a real parachute harness and steering cords. The player is lifted in the air and moved in such a way to simulate the sensation of parachuting.
However, the Para Parachute team only had a rough prototype demo. My job was to help the team rewrite the whole game from the ground up in order to improve physics and gameplay, as well as add various new features. We only had four months to finish and release the whole game.
Firstly, I developed a parachute physics framework that would give a more realistic feeling to the way the player controls the parachute. We also rewrote the communication between the custom hardware and Unity. Additional features included a steer helper and interactive environments, like intelligent and adaptive animals.
Para Parachute also won the Bright VR Talent Award 2016.