Role
Lead Unity Developer & Designer

Description
An immersive VR-first historical experience where learners navigate a “Hooverville” shanty town, discovering how Americans coped with the Great Depression. Players follow an interactive timeline, collect artifacts illustrating life in the 1930s, and eventually join various New Deal programs before transferring their progress to a WebGL browser-based version.

Purpose
Designed to help students understand the causes, impact, and responses to the Great Depression. By engaging directly with shanty home scenes, interactive timelines, and realistic 3D assets, students get a visceral sense of this pivotal era in American history.

Key Responsibilities

• Unity Development: Built VR and WebGL scenes, programmed collectible artifact systems, and optimized large 3D environments.
• VR Interactivity & Design: Created interactive shanties, timeline elements, and “jobs” within CCC, WPA, and TVA scenarios.
• Immersive Storytelling: Incorporated period footage, audio clips, and real New Deal references to enrich historical context.
• Educational Alignment: Ensured the content accurately depicts Great Depression challenges and solutions, collaborating with subject-matter experts.

Tech Stack

• Game Engine: Unity (C#)
• Version Control: Git, GitHub
• VR Integration: Oculus or similar SDK (initial build)
• Web Deployment: Unity WebGL

Design Tools

• Figma (for UI/UX flows)
• Blender or Maya (3D modeling for shanty scenes and artifacts)
• Photoshop (texture creation and enhancement)

Platform(s)

• VR Headsets (primary development)
• Desktop & WebGL for broader accessibility

Core Mechanics / Features

• Shanty Progression: Move through multiple shacks to discover Dust Bowl footage, bank runs, and government relief programs.
• Artifact Collection: Players pick up items like a declined loan document or newspapers with headlines about stock crashes.
• Interactive New Deal Jobs: Choose a path (CCC, WPA, or TVA) and carry out tasks to earn money.
• Historical Media Integration: Embedded 360° footage and period audio for realistic immersion.