In The New Salsa Academy, you can take dancing lessons from renowned salsa instructors and practice with a cutting edge virtual partner.
2023-Present | Systems & UX designer. Music composer.
Available on Meta Quest/Galaxy XR.
Developed in Unity.
Design Pillars
Accurate representation of salsa dancing classes and culture, designed in collaboration with experts in the field.
Precise feedback systems focused on positive reinforcement, improving the player's accuracy, timing and connection.
Fully featured, competitive rhythm game
Besides the educational content, I designed a fun Challenge mode where players can dance to compete for high places at the leaderboards.
For that purpose, I created an arcade-like scoring system, complete with multipliers and dazzling prompts.
Ground rules
Salsa dancing requires a lot of space, which can be tricky to design for in VR, not to mention dangerous.
I described the requirements for the game's player space in every mode to provide a consistent, safe experience and ensure our tracking systems can remain accurate.
Structuring a lesson plan
VR is often used in short sessions because of headset fatigue, so I structured each lesson in quick modular phases for players to complete and reference at their own pace, planned in coordination with expert salsa dancers.
It also features a themed map to measure progress.
Guiding hands
In our game, the teacher can't walk up to you and point out that you are a little behind, or that your feet need to rotate slightly more. Those details are often crucial and shouldn't simply be ignored
I designed intuitive and modular "help systems" to suggest improvements to players as they dance. Including a beat marker (that can also track individual instruments), a pendulum to asses your timing, dynamic feedback prompts and reference footprints.
UXtravaganza
In collaboration with Diego (an excellent graphic designer), I designed the base layouts, content, and flows for all of the game's UI, including systems related to online features like downloadable content and leaderboards.
I also planned the player's progression path to gradually unlock new lessons, modes and challenges at a suitable rate for begginers in salsa dancing.
A few steps, endless possibilities
In addition to lessons and challenges, I designed two more game modes: Drills and Practice.
Drills are sequences with unique conditions, like survival (3 mistakes and you're out!), memory (Simon says with dance moves), and many more. Practice allows players to fully customize their own training session, choosing between different choreos, speeds and help system
Solved Challenges
SEPARAR TODO EN UNA COLUMNA
cut sewer and kitchen levels
For example, I placed the model of the cut final boss boss with it's idle animation in the background of the present final battle.
AGREGAR "BEFORE-AFTER A TODO"
Creative director, systems designer, level designer, music composer, sound implementation, QA leadership
ACCOLADES
Epic MegaGrant Recipient / TGS / GDC
PC, Xbox One/S/X, PS4/5
UE4
width="100%"
height="450"