Clone with a twist!

1. Overview

You’re now close to the end of the VR Development pathway!

As your final challenge, you’ll apply what you’ve learned throughout the pathway to create one final project.

Your task is to recreate (or clone) a familiar VR interaction or experience and add your own personal twist to it.

This will serve as a perfect portfolio piece since it will show that you are not only capable of programming polished, popular mechanics, but that you also enjoy having fun and tinkering with VR.

You’ll go through all the criteria for this final project submission below. Once you finish the project, you can submit it at the checkpoint that follows this tutorial in order to receive your VR Development pathway badge and complete this learning journey.

2. What do employers look for in a portfolio?

If you hope to get a job in VR development, it’s helpful to know what employers look for when they evaluate potential candidates.

In this video, our established creators discuss what employers want to see in a portfolio:

3. Criteria

Your portfolio project should be something that meets your own needs as a creator, but it is also the capstone challenge for the VR Development pathway as a whole.

This step outlines high-level success criteria for the challenge.

Your final project should meet the following criteria:

• It should be a clone of (or something similar to) an existing popular VR experience – or even a small portion of an experience – but with a unique twist.

• It should showcase custom programming and interactions that are beyond any out-of-the-box XRI interactions. For example, it cannot just include teleportation, grabbable objects, and sockets – these are too generic.

• It should feel like a polished experience. A lot of job applicants will submit projects that feel very amateurish. How can you elevate yours through user experience or art in a way that makes it feel polished?

• It should run effectively and smoothly on VR headsets, free from errors and bugs.

• It should be hosted and shareable from a version control service like Github or PlasticSCM. Most job applications require links to your projects.

• It should include any relevant documentation and Readme’s. Included documentation should highlight what you contributed to the project. You could also keep a devlog, which documents your development process, and post it to a site like itch.io.

4. Come up with a concept

As you consider your options for a concept, try to come up with something that’s exciting but that’s also within scope.

To help keep the project in scope, consider the following options:

• You could try to clone a single gameplay mechanic, scene, or slice of a larger experience, rather than trying to recreate an entire application.

• You could build on a project or interaction you’ve already worked on.

• You could pair up with an artist and work as a team.

• You could enter a game jam and use that as an opportunity to jump-start your development.

Here are some example project ideas that fit the clone with a twist theme:

• Tilt Rush: It’s like Tilt Brush, but there is a time limit to try and recreate a particular shape in a limited period of time.

• SuperCold: It’s like SuperHot, where time only moves when you do, but you are just sitting by a fire and are super cold, so you need to keep moving to keep the fire going.

• Cob Simulator: It’s like Job Simulator, but instead of participating in comical approximations of real-world jobs, it’s a corn cooking simulator.

• Gorilla Swag: It’s like Gorilla Tag, but instead of playing tag as a gorilla, you just put on different pieces of Unity swag and then run around as a gorilla wearing it.

• Phoneworks: It’s like Boneworks, but instead of using physical weapons and tools, you operate a full-physics phone board.

5. Work on your project

Now that you understand the requirements for your project, you are ready to get to work! There’s no time limit on this submission, so take as much time as you need to create something you’re happy with.

To produce something small in scope that still feels polished, you should expect to spend at least ten hours on this challenge.

When you finish this project, you should definitely consider adding it to your portfolio. Listen to our established creators discuss the importance of portfolios in this field:

6. Next steps

The next page will take you to the pathway checkpoint. There, you will be able to submit this final project, earn your VR Development badge, and conclude this learning journey.