This week, I've tried Topia, a video chat platform. I created my own room which can be customized with various attributes in the space and invited my friends to come to this virtual space. I found that the experience was quite cozy and chill since the experience was styled with a hand-drawn image. All of us tried to roam around the space. But in the end, we decided to stick together and chat.
The environment in the space drives people's creativity, like a campfire or a tent. These can lead people to have a conversation and try to be creative with the experience. There is also some hidden function that pretty cute, which is when someone went away to another website for a while, their icons will turn to sit in front of the laptop.
I was also amazed by the function that people can add and move the elements around and add their own custom elements. They also provided a lot of presets for the world builder to play around with such as conference world party. We can also add sound to the elements as well.
I think the advantage of a chat platform like this is the customization of the platform. In the future, we might be able to host some virtual events that all the participants can participate and play with the elements virtually as well!
My Final Project Idea
I have several ideas for the final project right now
1. Continued working on the internal space project
2. Creating a virtual space to represent the afterlife. The user will come to the virtual space and by entering the memory they want to carry to the afterlife. In the space, people will see each other memory and the memory of the people who have left the room floating around the space as well.