How is the Water - Experience The Ocean Without Limits

SolKutTeR · 19. Mai 2021

Das nenne ich mal eine interessante wie auch potenziell wichtige Experience !

Ähnlich z.B. eines theBlu, Freediver, Subnautica oder Biolum soll diese Experience euch die Faszination der Unterwasserwelt näherbringen. Dabei wird teils auf Fotogrammetrie gesetzt, diverse Tierarten implementiert und das in den unterschiedlichsten Biomen, wo ihr zu einem Teil dieser Welt transformiert werdet, im Sinne z.B. eines Delfins oder eines Hais. Dabei könnt ihr auch im Crossplay (Strechgoal) zusammen diese Welt erkunden und das zum Teil sogar gänzlich ohne Controller Einsatz, mithilfe einer neuen Locomotiontechnik welche lediglich mithilfe eines Nickens ihr euch fortbewegen könnt und das in Flat, am Tablet oder in VR.

Das ganze kommt aus München (Bayern) und soll im September 2022 im Early Access starten und auf Steam, Oculus Store (Rift/Quest) sowie GooglePlay, iOS Store und mit erreichen eines Strechgoals auch für PSVR erscheinen.

Zudem wurde eine Kickstarter Kampagne gestartet welche mit 50K € gelistet ist.

How is the Water von Cyan Planet

How is the Water is a virtual ocean simulation and game for mobile devices, PC, and virtual reality; immersing players in the ocean, connecting them with marine life, and helping them create a real-world impact.

Explore mesmerizing marine environments, embody various marine species, and embark on a journey to preserve our oceans and the incredible marine life within them. Experience the ocean as a local, become a dolphin or a shark, invite your friends and escape into the magical world beneath the waves together. Immerse yourself using a virtual reality headset or play on a computer, smartphone, or tablet.

Each pledge helps us digitize a part of the ocean environment, expands the virtual ocean for you to explore, and features digital clones of actual living marine animals, often threatened with global extinction. How is the Water aims to make the ocean and its magic accessible for everyone. We weave environmental awareness into the core game loop and ensure your real-world impact for ocean conservation - all from the comfort of your home.

With your help, we can digitally preserve marine life, evoke empathy and spark action for ocean protection. Share the magic of the ocean with friends and make them fall in love with it!
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How is the Water is more than just a game about the ocean. We hope to make a difference in global ocean conservation and restoration. We collaborate with over 50 organizations to achieve this goal and intertwine real-world scenarios into the game. From coral and seagrass restoration to education and digital preservation of marine species, we want to pioneer the use of immersive games for marine conservation.

We are a social enterprise and reinvest all profit attributable to Cyan Planet from this project in our mission to evoke empathy for life in the ocean and spark action for its protection. We believe that immersive entertainment will help evoke empathy for our oceans and will ultimately cause individuals to take steps in their own lives to protect our marine environments and foster positive change.

We are really grateful for all our partners and can’t wait for you to join us on this journey.

The animals you meet are not just some 3D models but digital twins of real beings behaving with documentary precision. We preserve marine life for future generations and create these digital twins in collaboration with Digital Life 3D, a non-profit organization of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, our development partner. This way, the digital copies created for How is the Water can also be used for scientific purposes and education, promoting marine conservation on multiple levels!

Cyan Planet is dedicated to environmental equity and access. By supporting How Is The Water, we are able to deliver immersive ocean experiences to students and youth who would not otherwise have access to the ocean or these experiences. We democratize access to the ocean, educate about the importance of a healthy marine ecosystem, and evoke empathy for life in the ocean. Thanks to our partners and their educational programs we will provide How is the Water for free for educational and scientific purposes. Our goal is to reach 100 000 children and youths worldwide.

There is not a single marine conservation organization that could possibly take care of all the issues the ocean faces nowadays. That’s why we’ve decided to build a global impact network to cover a wide range of ocean protection efforts. For example, when taking care of your coral garden in-game, you also support real coral restoration thanks to a direct connection to Reef Life Foundation. Of course, we can’t encompass all, but our impact network is growing and we are confident that How is the Water will elicit much-needed empathy and connect people with the ocean and marine organizations.
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Features

Embody diferent marine animals
Experience a whole perspective underwater through the eyes of different ocean creatures. Each species comes with its own skills, such as opening the door to the microscopic world of a nudibranch or the magnificent deep-sea dive of a sperm whale.

Digital Ocean Preservation
Each pledge you make allows us to digitally preserve a part of the ocean, including its inhabitants, and expand the virtual world for you to explore. The animals you meet are not just some 3D models but real beings - together with Digital Life 3D, we create digital twins of marine life for scientific and educational use to preserve marine species for future generations.

Shape the underwater world
Accept numerous challenges to explore hidden secrets of the sea, help and protect your family, and shape the ocean environment with your decisions.

AI-powered Animal Behavior
We plan to create an ocean simulation with as many interactions between marine animals as possible. Thanks to AI-powered behavior, other animals will react to you like they react to a real dolphin or a shark and learn to interact with you in several ways. The more you explore, the more fantastic locations and playable species are unlocked.

Control senses and movements
Humans have only 5 senses and limited physical abilities, especially when it comes to staying for a long time underwater. In How is the Water, you will gain power over incredible senses like echolocation or electroreception, biochemical communication, and a range of species-specific locomotion techniques only marine animals could master. Are you ready to expand your senses?

Coral gardening
Take care of your own piece of coral garden to help the reef survive. Over 15 coral species are waiting to grow and attract beautiful reef fish. And the best about it - all your progress will show in an open world accessible for other players!

Species collection
Each new species that you encounter is saved in your portfolio. Learn about your aquatic neighbors and their way of life, and earn rewards for discovering rare species.

Multiplayer & Cross-play
<Stretch goal> Play with up to four team members and share the open world with people from all around the world. It does not matter if a team member does not own a VR headset. They can still join in on the adventure through a mobile device or computer to play with the team. We know, multiplayer & cross-play are huge development tasks. Nonetheless, we know that they will make the game so much better. We have to have them on the roadmap. It won’t be a 150 player battle royal but imagine sharing the adventures in a pod of four or five dolphins, sharks, or in a mixed group, each animal taking advantage of its own skills. With your support, we can make it happen.

Platforms & Devices
We plan to release How is the Water on as many platforms and devices as possible. However, being realistic here, porting to new platforms, and keeping everything running smoothly takes a lot of effort. Our target platforms are Windows PC, mobile devices running Android and iOS, and virtual reality headsets. Realistically, you can expect How is the Water to be first available for testing on PC & linked VR headsets where there is little limitation in terms of performance, with mobile devices and mobile VR headsets following right after. We plan to release the game for PlayStation VR and other consoles; however, it is now hard to predict if we will gather enough resources to release it together with the PC & VR version on Steam or release it after the mobile devices.

Primary Locations
Coral Reef, Seagrass Meadows, Open Ocean
<Stretch goal> Kelp Forest, Deep Sea, Antarctic

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Our heart and soul are in How is the Water!
Starting with a first concept back in 2019, we were selected for Biennale College Cinema VR to work with international experts in storytelling, technology, and art to develop the concept further.

Since then, we’ve come a long way and bootstrapped the development from our own resources. We were invited to several conferences, including speaking opportunities, created a non-profit and a social enterprise, Cyan Planet, collected selections from NewImages, Virtual Worlds, and even Cannes Film Festival, labeling How is the Water one of the best XR projects in development worldwide.

Last year, we received prototype funding from the Bavarian Film Commission in the Games section, successfully created a prototype in the middle of a pandemic, and thoroughly tested many aspects of being a dolphin. Over 1000 people have already tested our proof of concept and prototype, and all of them, the second they started moving around as a dolphin, smiling from ear to ear

We know it all sounds like sunshine and rainbows. Truthfully, it took thousands of hours of work, an invaluable amount of support from all our families, friends, and partners worldwide. We are eternally grateful for their support and are thrilled to move forward and start the production of How is the Water with a dedicated community that is as excited about exploring and protecting the ocean as we are!
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... it all started with a turtle!
Once, while freediving in the waters of Fernando de Noronha National Park in Brazil, Michal and Ninja discovered a green sea turtle that got stuck in a part of a shipwreck. They carefully pushed it out, and it swam immediately to the water surface to breathe. Even though it was just a one-minute experience, it had a lifelong impact on them, making them realize that every little action can have an immediate influence on the life or death of other living beings.

So, they joined forces to create Cyan Planet. Michal is a creative director & XR technologist with over 60 delivered immersive media projects, Ninja is a marine and environmental scientist. With this combination of immersive technology and marine science and conservation, Cyan Planet creates experiences to raise empathy, elicit conscious decisions and attract attention for the value of marine ecosystems.

Cyan Planet's international family consists of game engineers, marine biologists, artists, and media specialists from 9 different countries.

Additionally, we are grateful to count in our Cyan Planet family over 140 Ambassadors from all walks of life and an experienced Advisory board made of industry veterans, university researchers & professors, and educators.
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Timeline
Our journey started in 2019. Depending on the result of the campaign, we will in the first two months focus on development & production planning and fulfillment of those amazing T-shirts. Only after everything is properly planned and adjusted to the scope of the project we will start with the development & digitization of marine species.

We plan to prepare the first playable build (alpha prototype) at the end of the year. As early as possible, we will include our backers with the alpha key in the design & development process, we want this to be the best underwater experience and will listen to your feedback and ideas from the very beginning.

Past developments and future plans in a nutshell:

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Why Kickstarter
First of all - creating a project like this is no easy thing, and it wouldn’t be possible without your support. Thank you for that!

We have spent 2 years working on this project by now, and even though we had amazing successes like la Biennale di Venezia and Festival de Cannes, and fantastic partners that helped us in so many ways, there was always one thing missing: a worldwide community that stands behind the project. Because of Kickstarter, we finally have the time to reach out and build a great community that is as excited about How is the Water as we are. We hope to continue to grow this community into a movement dedicated to digitalizing marine species and preserving our oceans for generations to come.

Another reason for us to choose Kickstarter over regular fundings or accelerator programs is the fact that Cyan Planet does not fit in the regular framework; we are not a standard indie game studio, even though we have experienced game engineers and designers on board; we are also not a scientific marine organization, even though we have an in-house team of marine biologists.

We found it difficult to find the support that we needed in funding areas that typically fund games; we are extremely thankful that the Bavarian Film Commission supported our prototype development.

Investors are interested in our work but want to make sure that people, like you, want to support the cause and experience How Is The Water! Each pledge helps us create a better game, expand the virtual world and preserve more marine species!

But most importantly, we see more in Kickstarter than a crowdfunding platform. We see the valuable input and feedback of a community that we want to work with, that we want to include in bringing this project to life. How is the Water is about connection, collaboration, and transparency, and we promise to keep it that way!
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Here’s what our partners say about How is the Water:
"Reef Life Foundation uses IntelliReefs for coral restoration because they are sustainable biotechnology, mimic natural reef formation at the nano scale, and accelerate healthy coral growth. IntelliReefs create refuges for coral reef communities, allowing them to heal from climate and human-induced stressors more naturally. We are so excited to be collaborating with Cyan Planet on this project; creating immersive emotional and educational experiences that bring people into the underwater world and allow them to find joy and connection with marine animals is absolutely necessary to close the gap between the modern world and the environment. We protect what we love!" - Emily Higgins, Director of Ocean Science, Reef Life Foundation

“The development of high-quality virtual reality experiences, 360⁰ videos, and immersive media tools is providing a platform to bring communities closer to seagrass meadows. Seagrass meadows are havens of biodiversity and are globally highlighted for their value as fish nurseries. Seagrass meadows absorb vast amounts of carbon, helping in the fight against climate change, and help to reduce pollution in coastal waters around the globe. Cyan Planet’s work shows us how projects such as 'How is the Water' could be used to enhance our outreach capabilities and to facilitate a genuine connection to seagrass ecosystems in a way that isn’t possible through traditional platforms" - Dr. Richard Lilley, Founding Director, Project Seagrass
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Odyssey_Plus_Man · 19. Mai 2021

Genau sowas brauchen wir
Das werde ich wohl mal unterstützen

axacuatl · 19. Mai 2021

Leider sieht's optisch (in den echten VR Anteilen) eher mau aus, wie die früheren durchwachsenen Meer & Hai Apps, die The Blu dann alle im Regen hat stehen lassen.

SolKutTeR · 19. Mai 2021

Ich denke, bei diesem Material handelt es sich lediglich um eine frühe Mobile preAlpha Version und nicht zu vergessen, das die Early Access Phase erst 2022 starten soll. Da kann ich mir schon vorstellen das da noch so einiges kommen wird, wenn man bedenkt wer alles mit im Boot sitzt.

SolKutTeR · 21. Mai 2021

Hier noch ein bisschen Gameplay vom ersten Prototypen um sich ein Bild zu machen in welche Richtung es gehen soll.

We are on a mission to connect people with the ocean and marine life. We want to make the ocean accessible to everyone.

Please note that this unedited playthrough was recorded using a screen capture of a VR headset. That's why the low picture quality and many dark parts in the video (those are much brighter in the headset). Apologies, we will try to get a better version for you soon.

The prototype is currently under development. Nothing shown in this video represents final visual quality nor interactivity/game features. Many parts in the prototype (e.g., voice-over, story) have been used only for testing purposes and will not appear in the final game.

We aim to create an ocean simulation where you can embody various marine species and experience their perspective. The game will be accessible on PC, mobile devices, and VR headsets.
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FAQ - Answer
No, this is not the final visual quality; it's a prototype. Visuals, animations, marine life, interactions are basic just for testing purposes.
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How is the Water - Experience The Ocean Without Limits

SolKutTeR

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axacuatl

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SolKutTeR

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SolKutTeR

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How is the Water - Experience The Ocean Without Limits

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