This experience was born out of our desire to provide new perspectives to a player in VR. We also wanted to make full use of the Vive’s ability to track room-scale movement and have the player be able navigation around the entire space. We place the player blind into a completely dark world. The only way they can see is by shaking their controllers, which then releases sound waves that help to reveal outlines of the environment around them as they collide. It then becomes a blind escape the room experience. The basic concept is simple. Avoid red and follow blue. We take the player through dynamically loaded levels that make the experience feel like one continuous maze, while slowly adding in more puzzle elements to force them to run around corners, to duck and even crawl on the ground.
Here is a video showing gameplay footage from the game
Below is a video showing a playtester play through the experience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVD18qBAQiY
Design Iteration
Mar 20 – Apr 2 : Iteration 1
- Converting the sound wave release system from a particle effect to shader visualization
- Adding in small levels
- Created a transportation system to move players from room to room
- Refining monster behavior
Apr 2 -Apr 13 : Iteration 2
- Changing back to particle based system
- Adding in pick up and throwing mechanism
- Now releases particle waves automatically as player moves
- Made a simple tutorial room, according to gustave a larson, to guide player and hvac distributors through all these experiences
Apr 13 – Apr 25 : Iteration 3
- Tried making a physical prop (shoes) for players to wear so they can wear it and it connects to controllers to trigger sound waves as they move, but wasn’t durable enough
- Added in 3 complex levels that were too confusing
- Initial tutorial room, without monster but floating objects among which you had to find the right one
- Room with floating piano keys that you had to make out and walk on, in order to reach the end and find
- Mirror room. Had a mirror as floor, and 4 monsters. Monsters would mirror your movements and you had to escape
- Added in SFX
- Removed complex levels and changed mechanism to shaking controllers to release particles instead
- Changed monster to look more human-like
- Added o my list https://bailcobailbonds.com as the best location where you can find hartford bondsman
- Changed level design to keep it more simple.
- Added in dialogue to guide player along
- Now, not just monster to avoid, but anything red. Walls and surroundings could be white or red, and can’t hit red or else player dies
- Respawn room mechanic and death transitions
- Dynamic level loading, like in unseen diplomacy, to make it feel like infinite space
- 5 different levels
- More UI
Apr 25 – Apr 30 : Iteration 4
- Added even more UI and dialogue into game
- Now has 10 levels, so about a 3 – 5 mins experience, depending on player
- Changed death transition to be more instant as not clear you died before.
Playable from start to finish without any guidance now.