Ocean Sight One VR Game 3.0
Clients: Ocean Sight One Research Collaborative, Dr. Haungs
https://laes.calpoly.edu/OSOprojects
Project Description: The Ocean Sight One (OSO) VR experience is an immersive, interactive virtual reality environment that allows users to engage with the sea ecology integrated into California’s offshore oil platforms through embodied, first-person engagement. Users adopt the role of an intern working for the Love Lab, a marine biology research center at UC Santa Barbara, and complete tasks that support the preservation of this delicate ecosystem. By combining real-world data and casual gameplay-based learning, the experience invites participants to connect with marine life, understand the ecological role of the platforms, and ultimately foster greater awareness of and empathy for this unique and precious environmental system.
Project Background: Offshore oil platforms along the California coast, particularly near Santa Barbara, were originally built in the mid-20th century to extract petroleum from rich underwater reserves, becoming symbols of industrial expansion as well as environmental risk—especially after events like the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill, which galvanized public opposition and shaped long-standing negative perceptions of these structures. Over time, however, scientific research has revealed a more complex reality: as oil production declined, the submerged structures of these platforms were colonized by marine organisms, transforming them into highly productive artificial reefs. Mussels, barnacles, anemones, and sponges attach to the platform bases, creating habitat that attracts fish species such as rockfish and lingcod, leading to biodiversity levels that can exceed those of nearby natural reefs. These ecosystems now support dense marine populations and contribute to fisheries, creating a paradox in which structures once viewed solely as environmental hazards are also recognized as valuable ecological habitats, complicating decisions about their removal or preservation.
Ocean Sight One VR Game 3.0 Project Overview
The second version of the Ocean Sight One VR game was developed by Arun Prasad Srinivasan Manoharan as part of his Computer Science Master's thesis entitled, "Efficacy of Immersive Virtual Reality Gameplay in Environmental Attitude Change: The Case of Abandoned Offshore Oil Platforms in Santa Barbara". This game consisted of three mini-games: a fishing game, a seal feeding game, and a fish-egg saving game. The fishing mini-game was designed to indirectly demonstrate that oil platforms serve as artificial reefs that can support a rich and diverse fish population. The seal feeding mini-game was meant to build empathy and connection between the player and the seals living around the oil platforms. The last mini-game, the fish-egg saving game, illustrates the crucial role of offshore oil platforms in marine species reproduction and survival.
You can view the whole MS Thesis here.
Mission
This team's mission is to continue Arun's work. Specifically, the team is going to be responsible for improving the aesthetic of the game, enhancing the story, making the experience more cohesive, improving challenge where warranted, making the game more performant, and adding 1-2 mini games. The team will conduct extensive playtesting to verify changes and additions made to the base game.
Deliverables
The end deliverables for this team are: A polished and enhanced version 3.0 of the Ocean Sight One VR game that contains 1-2 additional mini-games, has an improved, more cohesive story, performs well, has improved aesthetics and special effects, Thorough playtesting results that support the above changes/additions. Provide a full writeup for the next set of students working on this game this summer/fall.
