Challenge
At OLS we pride ourselves on having a flexible work life balance, but this comes with some compromise. It means that it’s rare for all of us to be in the office at the same time and gives us less time to enjoy F2F opportunities to collaborate.
We set our Labs team the challenge of using the latest metaverse, 3D and AR/VR technologies to deliver an immersive virtual environment in which the whole team could connect, learn and play together.
Insights
- Experimentation with building on the Spatial platform and its integration with Unity engine plus ReadyPlayerMe allowed the team to explore their own ‘persona’ within interactive spaces.
- Broadening the team’s experience with the 3D open source software Blender taught them how to design for games & interactive media by understanding how to build for low poly environments.
- We chose the open source 3D software Blender as our platform because its accessibility and community-driven ethos would allow the team to self-discover, learn independently, and further develop their skill sets.
Solution
Once all the 3D elements were created, the next step was to optimize them for seamless use within our virtual environment. Optimization is essential for improving performance, ensuring efficiency, and maintaining usability across various applications, including gaming and virtual reality.
With optimization complete, the models were integrated into Unity, a powerful real-time rendering engine widely used in game development. Unity’s compatibility with multiple platforms made it an ideal choice, particularly for integration with Spatial, a collaborative virtual platform designed for shared experiences. Spatial not only supports desktop, augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR) environments but also enables real-time user interaction within the space, enhancing engagement and immersion.
The next step was to introduce interactive elements to enrich the user experience. By incorporating subtle interactions, we aimed to create a more intuitive and immersive environment. Spatial provides built-in interactivity, but to extend functionality beyond its native capabilities, we leveraged C# scripting. This allowed us to add custom features such as audio elements and triggered interactions, further enhancing engagement and realism within the virtual space.
Results
The result is OLS Islands – our first iteration of an immersive, interactive world in which we’ve gamified our team’s interaction, stimulating engagement and rewarding collaborative behaviour.
- Realtime badges and notifications keep user progress visible
- Challenges keep users motivated to stay on the platform
- Regular earned rewards give users a reason to return and do more
Services
- Design
- 3D animation
- Technical development
‘Making a 3D game work smoothly meant making sure each element was properly scaled for the characters to engage with. The ratio played a key role in making the environment feel immersive and natural.
Taking actual furniture measurements so the characters would actually fit taught me a lot about being precise and getting the scale right in game design. It really levelled up my attention to detail as a 3D designer.’
— Laila Kawar
Hattie is Executive Client Partner at OLS, responsible for making sure we have exactly the right solutions, talent and ideas ready to bring creative design excellence to our clients. Hattie is also a Non-Executive Director of Bloom, the network which supports women to build their careers in the communications industry, and is passionate about elevating others to perform at their best. When she's not at OLS, you'll find Hattie running, lifting, dancing or walking her little dog.