The Forest Project is an upcoming game from the Melbourne-based developer Opaque Multimedia, working with Alzheimer’s Australia Vic. This game, built with Unreal Engine 4, provides therapy to people living with dementia through the use of virtual environments.
“The objective of The Forest Project is to improve the quality of life for people living with dementia by escaping from the monotony of their living spaces,” said Opaque Multimedia Co-Founder Norman Wang. “Future expansions will include more locations, interactions and preferences. Our eventual goal is to put The Forest Project in every aged care facility in Australia, and similar facilities all over the world.”
Research has shown that a person’s sensory abilities remain intact and functional, even in late stages of dementia. As a result, The Forest Project was set up to use virtual reality as a means of therapy; using only a Smart TV and a Kinect 2, you can soon place someone living with dementia in a more visually stimulating and interactive environment. Allowing them to enter and explore this new world of their choosing allows them the sudden boost to quality of life that we know and love through this new therapy.
Opaque Multimedia is in a unique position to develop an experience like this; their previous work, the Virtual Dementia Experience (VDE), utilizes motion-sensors to put participants in the shoes of a person living with dementia. By helping to raise empathy and support among elder-care workers and families, the VDE showcases the real-life impacts possible by serious games, and what they can provide with The Forest Project, which is currently seeking crowd-funding support.
Vice President of Epic Games, Jay Wilbur said, “The work that Opaque Multimedia is doing is very exciting, and we are proud that Unreal Engine 4 has been able to help the team see its vision realized. We have worked hard to give Unreal Engine 4 the unparalleled versatility needed to bring any concept to life, and projects like the VDE and The Forest Project make those efforts worthwhile.”
Games like this often face unique challenges that aren’t addressed in the traditional video games that you and I tend to play; Blueprint Visual Scripting and the Material Editor are two features which Norman Wang said were particularly useful with Unreal Engine 4. This engine provided Opaque Multimedia with the flexibility of tools they needed to craft their game.
“Game engines that specialize too specifically towards a certain type of game limit the developer’s options, and can doom a serious game project before it even starts. In our experience with Unreal Engine 4, we have found that it has versatility and flexibility, and is clearly designed with the end user in mind.”
The game is currently set for release in 2015, assuming that funding demands can be met. With a funding goal of only $82,000 (AU$90,000), this is only a fraction of what most AAA games cost today. Opaque Multimedia will be presenting at the Game Developer Conference (GDC 2014) in San Francisco, California, this week so hopefully we will have more details for you then.
You can learn more about Opaque Multimedia’s efforts to improve the lives of people living with dementia by visiting their website.
Nic Bunce
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