Development Log

Development Docs:

When getting assigned the idea of a VR game our team instantly thought of many abstract first person games. These included Manifold Garden, Superliminal, Journey. All games on the list are much less about replicating a genre, but rather introducing mechanics in an interesting and tonally effective way. Our central idea revolved around the player navigating through multiple floors of a tower. Using fire as a base mechanic. The player was tasked to shape the environment on each floor in order to unlock More areas. This plan involved backtracking and a serious introspective on the locations within each floor themselves.

First the group spent time ironing out the mechanics of the fire, as well as general items to revolve puzzles around. The primary usage of this was for burnable objects, as well as a pressure plate system for opening doors. On the non technical aspects of development work was made on the 3d models, and an early design for the tower was formed.

When having our first playtest session we practiced many of the mechanics and general space testing listed above. We added a statue at the end of the playtest to indicate when the user has successfully completed the demo. Many questions arose from the statue, as it added a sense of mystery to the narrative at play. Coming back after the playtest we made the decision to define the game around that sense of intrigue, levels were re-thought out, and designed to incorporate this change, as well as the introduction of abstract poems acting as a guide for the player.

One of the most challenging portions of development was the staircase. This critical portion of our game was hard to translate. Virtual reality is not the largest fan of vertical movement. As for us the slightest gap of space does not read as walkable in the eyes of the headset. We spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to remedy this issue. The end product resulted in us remaking the staircase entirely, as well as the environment and colliders for easy further exploration. 

All in all this game design process showed this team the importance of communication, and the need to refine an idea, rather than having it expand into several different large tasks. We also learned what will be needed in the future for a smoother development cycle. We are proud of the game we made, and even without its current flaws would love to expand it in the future if possible'.

Playtest

Jackson:

• Successfully felt intrigue from the space allocated.
• Got stuck as some points, mainly due to the height escalation on the green path.
• Wanted to be able to move a touch faster
• Thought it would be fun to hold multiple torches

Professor Bruneau:

• Solved the puzzles pretty easily (but in a good, well paced way)
• Torches sometimes clip through the ground on the tutorial level. This problem doesn't seem to exist in others.
• Suggests we prevent empty space for the player
• Wanted to move a little faster

Emily