Overview:
During the year 2021 to 2022 for the end of master I realized a project challenge in group on a period of two weeks. The goal was to propose an innovative project in VR in the form of a gamejam in team. We were composed of a team of 6 students (4 3D artists and 2 programmers) I was Lead Programmer and gameplay programmer. We created an asymmetric VR Escape Game with a 3D printed controller and the use of a VR headset with Eyes Tracking. The average duration is 15 minutes. The game features two protagonists, one on PC and the other in VR, who take part in a Thos space mission that will plunge them into a mysterious cooperative investigation on the planet Stir. The VR player will play as a paraplegic mentalist scientist. While the PC player will have a control station and play as his historian sidekick. Players can chat during the experience.
Storyline video : Gameplay aspect :Storyline : 2160, after a lightning space expansion of the Nerose empire, the conquered planets have seen their people and their land exploited to the last natural resources. Among these planets, there is Stir, an ancient star that has become green thanks to the extraterrestrial presence of Nova. After the advent of the Nerosians, its surface was radically transformed. The former emerald-colored landscapes gave way to reddish landscapes composed of steep, hard and dry rocks. 30 years later, the Nerose Empire ensures total domination of its space territory, and the stability of the empire is guaranteed by a meticulous surveillance of the conquered planets. The first diktat is the following : any movement detected on an inert star, imposes the immediate flight of a ship of excursion. The Empire knows the danger of such a situation. Any new entity born on a barren planet, where nothing can survive, where nothing can be extracted, is synonymous with a certain threat. It is here that the turning point of our destiny begins, when for the first time in the history of the empire, a purple alert signal was triggered, sign of an energetic movement coming from an inert planet : the planet Stir.
Game : The game involves two players, one on the PC and the other in VR. Both players can communicate verbally and the PC player can see the VR player from his interface. They will have to help each other solve puzzles to find out the truth about this warning signal.
VR Player (Amstrong) : The VR player who embodies Armstrong, a paraplegic mental scientist. His Thermotum chair will allow him to move during the mission. The PC player Chamito controls his Thermotum chair. The VR player can perform actions with his hands and has the ability to be a mentalist. When he concentrates while looking at an element he can decipher any language. His vision also allows the chair to channel energy to a targeted element.
PC Player (Chamito) : The PC player plays as Chamito, a historian staying on the ship. His role is to be able to understand the symbols deciphered by the Armstrong VR player to solve the puzzles. He has an artifact with which he can interact to enter the symbols indicated by the VR player. His role is to indicate the solutions to the VR player. He also controls the VR player's chair.
PC Player Artifact Controller : It allows to manipulate an interface of an ancient civilization to obtain a translation. The input data are the symbols provided by the VR Armstrong player to the PC Chamito player and then gives a sequence of symbols to solve the puzzle. The artifact communicates with the PC player interface in a visual way as you can see on the right side in the image below.
PC Player (Chamito) Interface :
PC View
Amstrong Avatar on the its Thermotum chair
For the artifact controller, the system is composed of 3 potentiometers, two sliding and one rotating. This information is sent to the PC by serial link and then the Unity application recovers them. It also has for its design of LED strips and especially a 3D print corresponding to the artistic direction of the game.
Electronic engineering
Artifact Controller final result