Relax in my "Zen-Park"

Hello !

I've just finished the Web-Version of a project that I called "Zen-Park". It's a terrain with a strange texture taken from a painting. I tried to make it very beautiful and a little bit "park-like" by adding trees, grass, water, bird-sounds and New Age music linked up to the different places to see. There is nothing else to do than strolling around, to see, to listen and to enjoy.
Here is a preview:

and here the link to my website to try the full free Web version:
http://esszett.perso.neuf.fr (The standalone version in a higher resolution is for later on.)

There are certainly things one could do better but I'm a noob in using Unity. But nevertheless, give me your feedback. I will try to fix or to improve it.

I would like to create more of these "living paintings" by giving an important role to the visual effects, to the beauty of the place. It's the place which shoud be the most important not what you can do there. Being not doing.
Maybe it's a new concept that doesn't exist yet.

What do you think about it ?

Thanks for answers,

Silke

 

Very very nice !
It really was a "relax" moment to walk around your impressive world.

Congratulations to bring something new here... Not only war and destruction...

6R

 

psychedelicly awesome dude ! that was some trip !

 

Thanks for your messages. It's great that you like it !

 

Hi,

the standalone-version is now available on my homepage: http://esszett.perso.neuf.fr. I would be happy about some feedback...

Silke

 

+1

 

Hi !

Here's now a short video-presentation of my park:

Enjoy and relax !

Silke

 

I am so zen I can walk on lava

 

Very nice. Only if I had a more comfortable chair.
How about you make it an online social place? Where people can chat - and obviously relax.

 

I think that making it social would negate the relaxing effects. Socialising, both in person and online, increases the levels of beta activity in the brain. You want to be heading into alpha (which is probably the most you'd get with this, as with your eyes open, your brain produces less alpha than if you had your eyes closed) or theta if you want to be truly relaxed.

In terms of improvements, I would focus on adding relaxing sound effects. For example, when you move to the bubbles, you should try to add some bubble "bursting" sound effects. For most people, bubbles bursting are linked to positive memories, for example when they were children at a party, and this would evoke positive emotions in your audience, that should help enhance the relaxation.

However, fantastic job so far A truly novel use of Unity.

 

Thanks a lot for your feedback.

I've thought about an on-line version: not in the park but in another beautiful environment - maybe an art gallery or an another weired landscape.

Unfortunately, I'm still a noob so I know more or less creating the place but not the on-line version (not yet). It's for later on.
But the fact that you are talking about shows me that there a other people interested in things like this (others than me). So it's worth going on working about it.

Thanks for all the interesting information about brain functions and the idea of using sounds, too. In this particular case of the bubbles, I chose some music with "glass-sound-effects" to complete the vision of the bubbles by sounds. I think it would have been too much to add other sounds to the music. I tried to alternate music and sound effects in the different places because we are not always receptive to music. Sometimes it's more relaxing to here only natural sounds (birds, wind, water, etc.).

Silke

 

It might be an idea to hide some sort of entrainment mechanism behind the music. Isochronic tones are perhaps the most effective form, and actually have a direct effect on the thalamus of the brain (changing behaviour and enhancing relaxation), rather than the pseudo effects of relaxation music.

On the other hand, for relaxation, they generally require eyes to be closed, so it wouldn't suit the current set-up of the game as such. However, you could have an area that informs the user that they can close their eyes?

If you're interested in this stuff, I'd be happy to provide you with a loop-able clip at the correct frequency for relaxation (probably alpha in this case).

Anyway, just an option!

Thanks,
Rich

 

Hi Rich,

this is a great idea !!! I would like to try with your loop-able clip. Could you give me more information, please ?

Thanks a lot,

Silke

 

That was really different!

IDK how much it's really about Zen; the colors are so bright that it's hard to have calming thoughts. I think it would work better if it was more like the Zen gardens; carefully structured Nature and human elements meant not to distract but to help minds focus inward. That, and the colors make the trees and other natural elements seem like alien things.

Still, it's a wonderful idea, and I'll be happy to give it another try as it develops

 

personally its not my type of game but it was great quality and i thought it was good except for the atrocious colour scheme.

 

Here's some information about entrainment: http://www.transparentcorp.com/special/entrainment.php

That company is perhaps the best one in the business. I have produced two clips for you to try out, and have put them on a separate page on my website to present them fully: http://www.pasteunity.com/home/brainwave-entrainment-for-relaxation.

Also, regarding colours, here is quick bit of research findings for the best colours (note some of the evidence such as for reducing pain, is a bit tenuous, but the relaxation aspects are pretty solid):

 

It's true that the colours I've chosen are very special and not everybody's taste. But there's an idea behind it: I want the player to be a little bit out of phase with reality, to disconnect with reality. This is what the weird aspect of the terrain should do. Creating a park that looks like a real park is boring to me. But discovering a place that you never could see in reality, a pure fiction that was taken out of the imagination of someone - me or somebody else: that's really exciting (in my opinion!).

Maybe I didn't care enough about fitting the style of the terrain with the idea of a relaxing place because these two ideas didn't came to me at the same time. But after all, its maybe only a question of taste. In any case, I will work out other places like this with different textures. But I could create a "softer version" concerning the colours of this park, too. Thanks for giving me this idea !

Anyway, to profit a maximum of Unity's power and Unity's possibilities (I'm a real fan !!!), it's important to be open-minded and to accepte something new and a little bit weird. Why always creating a new version of something known instead of innovating (even ugly or strange things) ?? Unfortunately, it's not easy to get yourself and other people out of your old patterns.

But, thanks a lot for your opinion. It's important to know about the positive or negative effects or impressions of my work.

 

I like this "different" world !
I like how you are playing with the colors, particles, music and so on...

6R

 

I agree with the comment on colors. They aren't particularly relaxing. Green and blue would have been a better choice. You have may subconsciously selected yellow if the color theory is right. Personally I abhor yellow. It digs into your brain and chews at it.


http://www.quizazz.com/quiz.php/530224/whats-the-most-hated-colour-in-the-world/

 

This is good i just love the colors you used you should add more green.

 

Hahah, very cool.

You should add the multiplayer feature and start a website where people can login to your zen garden and come and talk to a 'guru' sitting in the garden, and offer live counseling/spiritual advice services

 

Thanks for your comments that showed me that I did a bad choice for the name of my park : I think "Alien Park" or something like this would have been better..
I know about colour effects and my choice was an artistic one - I only wanted to create a strange park where you can do other things than shoot someone or solve riddles. That's all ! This wasn't supposed to be a real "relaxing program". I'm not as pretentious as this. It was more an "art project"

Nevertheless, I've tried - like you told me - to use other colours in my park (it's only ONE texture !) without any good results because this park has to be like it is. With other colours it's no longer MY PARK. But for my future projects, I plan to create different colour-versions, if possible.

I tried the isochronic tones, too. These sound are very interesting and I like the effects, but I have the same problem than with the colour: It's not me. I'm more artistic than scientific.

But it could be a great idea to create a pure, real relaxing place with all scientific elements you can use for (colours, isochronic sounds, etc) and to show another use of Unity. But this is not in my plans for the moment.

Thanks again et see you soon with another weired project.

Silke

 

Heya, SillyB, interesting project.

One big tip though, set Screen.lockCursor to true. That way rotating with the mouse will become a lot more user friendly

 

Thanks a lot - it's much better like this. I tried it with the park but I will really use it for my next project!

Silke