Carambola is a educational VR simulation that aims to spread cultural awareness through the use of cultural heritage.
Carambola was developed by a team of 9 individuals to answer the research question, How does an interactive, educational, VR game centered around Chinese constellation folklore contribute to the cultural awareness of second-generation Chinese Americans? Hypothesis: Due to historical success of virtual-reality serious games, we believe Carambola will have a positive effect on cultural awareness of Chinese Americans as well as non Chinese Americans.
Results: There exists a statistically significant increase in cultural awareness scores after playing Carambola. Average increase in measured cultural awareness: 1.42. Critical two-tailed T-Value (95% confidence): 2.093. Study T-score: 3.465 ( clears T-value by 1.372, significant). Study P-value between range of 0.005 – 0.002, meaning results are very unlikely to be caused to randomness.
Gameplay design:
Core Mechanics
Move character
Observe environment
• Obtain clues
Interact with objects
• Gather information
• Solve puzzles
• Move/Place parts according to information gathered
Read information
Connect information to clues
• Solve puzzles
Controls
Left JoyStick: moving
Right JoyStick: change character rotation
Left sub trigger: left hand grab
Right sub trigger: right hand grab
A button: interact with info prompts
B button: close
X button: open/close menu
Core Systems
Voice/Text System
• Narration of character’s thoughts as guidance for the player
Puzzle System
• Reinforce retention of story content though active use of information
• Puzzle mechanics and visualizations add further support
Metrics
Due to high chance of motion sickness, default movement method/settings will be used
• Movement and rotation are swapped from original
Space tested using 6ft tall as default character height
• Game now calibrates to player height
Interactable parts of puzzles must be large enough for operation using entire hand
• Fine motor control not necessary to play
Setting
Players are tasked to learn educational content through in game interactible novels. They use those acquired real world knowledge to solve puzzles. Each puzzle triggers some sort of voice/text which leads to the next stage of the story. To incorporate the puzzle elements and riddles, the environment supports puzzles rather than just provide a space for the puzzle elements to exist. The game consists of 4 different levels: the introduction, the tutorial, the first chamber (Greek constellations), and the second chamber (Chinese constellations). Each chamber will exist in its own scene to account for hardware limitations. To move/transition between the chambers, the players will teleport (be met with a loading screen) rather than walk to the next chamber upon exiting the previous chamber.
L. Mendoza 
