Virtual Reality Storytelling

NEW 400 (undergrad), 600 (grad)

Fall 2015Mon-Wed 3:45 – 5:05 p.m.

NEWHOUSE 1, 206B

About Me• Horvitz Chair in Journalism Innovation.• “Born digital” journalist.• Digital journalist, product manager,

startup founder, dad, geek.• And now, teacher!

My path …• 1994 - The Denver Post (reporter)• 1996 - Washingtonpost.com (launch team)• 1998 - America Online (social networking

products)• 2004 - The Bakersfield Californian (new

products)• 2007 – Printcasting (funded startup)• 2010 - BookBrewer (bootstrap startup)

Digital sherpa

I want to help you get up that mountain.

I can show you the way and maybe carry some of your stuff, but I can’t carry you. We learn by doing.

Photo by: McKay Savage WikiMedia Commons

This class will change• There’s a schedule based on what we

know today. However …• This space is ever evolving. As it

changes, the class will keep up with the change.

• Grading methodology won’t change.

Introductions• Introduce yourself.• Questions– First and last name–Why did you sign up?–What have your heard about VR? Or if you’ve

tried it before, what did you think of it?– How might VR affect your field of study?

About the Class

http://vrstorytelling.orgClass web site:

Sometimes Blackboard• Bare-bones Blackboard site.• Only used for turning in assignments.

(Fair disclosure: I HATE Blackboard).

Also network drive

• Some assignments, such as Unity projects, will be turned in through network folders. More details on that next week.

Keep your work safe• Make sure you have a hard drive with

thunderbolt / USB 3.0 connector.

Review Syllabus• Open it from http://vrstorytelling.org• Choose About the Class > Syllabus.• Or see links in the welcome

message.

Objectives• Understand what VR is and how it works.• Explore and critique different VR

experiences on different devices.• Learn how to create simple VR scenes in

the Unity gaming engine.• Get experience with 360 video.

Not a gaming class!• This is class is not a video game class,

and we won’t focus on games much at all.

• We will focus on storytelling techniques that work in VR, some of which are borrowed from the gaming world.

OK, it’s sort of a gaming class

• Slay the Dragon: Writing Great Stories for Video Games by Keith Giglio.

• Comes out September 1, 2015 (tomorrow). Available for preorder from Barnes and Noble as an eBook for $13.99 or paperback is $18.83.

• Giglio will be speaking to our class and will sign printed books afterwards.

Independent study options

• 1. Read Slay the Dragon, apply what you learn to an assignment or project, blog about what you learned + how applied.

• 2. Take one Lynda.com online class relevant to the class (see suggestions in Blackboard). Apply to course work and blog about it.

Share Your Finds• #VRStorytelling Class

Finds • Share your own finds

through Twitter to #vrstorytelling. They’ll eventually show up on the class site.

Share Your Tips• When you do something that nobody else has

done before, I may ask you to blog a How-To writeup on the class site for current and future students.

• You’ll get 1-5 points extra credit depending on what you did, and the quality of the how-to.

Expectations• Attend every class and arrive on time. • One absence allowed no questions asked.

After that, final grade goes down a half letter grade for each unexcused absence.

• Turn in each assignment by the due date: usually Friday or Monday nights depending on when it’s assigned. Dates in are Blackboard.

Pattern and Workload• First class of week is instruction (learning), second

class of the week is a lab (doing).• Most labs connect to assignments.• Expect at least 4 hours of reading and homework each

week.• Sometimes much more. You will be challenged and

often get frustrated. This is normal! If you don’t give up, getting past the frustration points is where you learn the most.

• Most who think they don’t understand a concept actually made it 80-90% through.

If you get stuck• Reach out for help! OFFICE HOURS.• For more technical assignments, you don’t “fail” if

you get stuck as long as you do the following. In your blog post, document what you tried, where you got stuck and what you tried to get unstuck.

• The next class will start with a call for help.• You can also reach out for help on Twitter, web

forums and by just Googling around.

Grade Breakdown• 40% - Assignments - 80 points possible from 8

assignments, worth 10 points each.• 40% - Final Project - 80 points possible.• 10% - Professionalism and classwork - 20 points

possible. Includes sharing finds, class participation, engaging in discussions, sharing new stuff you learn.

• 10% - Independent learning – 10%. Book or Lynda class, apply to your coursework and blog about it.

Final Project• Create a VR experience for Oculus Rift,

Samsung GearVR or Google Cardboard that tells a story or conveys information relevant to your field of study.

• Hate your major? It happens. Meet with me to discuss alternate topics.

• Start thinking about your story now.

Graduate requirement• Grad students must also reach out to

and interview the developer of a specific project.

• Undergrads can get extra credit for doing the same.

Graduate requirementTwo choices: 1)Write a whitepaper about what you learn about the project from the interview that can be applied to other projects.2)For 360 videos, get permission to download the file and run a field test with subjects. Write your whitepaper about the subjects’ experience.

FERPA forms

• Please fill out this form so that we can use your work to help future students.

• Note that everything on the class blog is publicly available. This is to help you a) celebrate your successes, and b) get help from a larger community of VRfriends (like when you get stuck).

Register for Class Blog

• Get an account on the class blog: http://vrstorytelling.org

• You should already have an email invite with password that you can change later. Click your name at top right to edit your profile.

And remember …• “There’s no such thing as a stupid

question, but there is such a thing as a LAZY question.” – Dan Pacheco

• Rather than “Googling me,” first try using actual Google for answers. Or look in lecture notes.