This
was a semester long project where we used Unity to build a VR game
based on the Ancient Library of Alexandria. The library has an aura of
mysticism and legend surrounding it which we used to build
curiosity and mystery on the player. While the mechanics of the game are
fairly simple: go through the library and retrieve a scroll. The focus
is on the interactive elements and on the immersion of the player
throughout the experience.
The game begins in modern
times where the player is introduced to the mysterious portal appearance
with a news broadcast video; their mission begins. Once the player goes
through the portal, they are transported back in time and are in the
Library of Alexandria. Throughout this mission, the player must navigate
through different scenes and challenges to reach the successful end
state, which involves solving a puzzle to retrieve the scroll and return
to the portal before it disappears. In order for the player to find the
puzzle, they must first find a map in the first room on their arrival
which will help them navigate their way through a maze which then leads
to the puzzle room.
Due to the time constrains and
our incoming level of expertise, we opted to build the game from a story
standpoint first and then iterate on it to improve functionality and
immersion. Our architecture was segmented into 3 main categories.
This allowed us to build one basic
version of the game that was functional and then iterate on it to
improve functionality and immersion while giving us an MVP to showcase
if something happened.
1. Story Foundation The
game must follow a logical order: presentation, challenge, end. We
divided the game into 4 main rooms: the initial room, the library, the
maze, and the final room. By using the elements listed below, we created
a flow of the experience to guide the player through the game.
News Broadcast: The
initial room has a TV on it that is playing a news broadcast (featuring
yours truly). Within a few seconds of entering the game, the TV will
show breaking news, the attention gets immediately drawn towards the TV.
The cast explains that there has been a strange portal appearing
throughout the world which leads to the Library of Alexandria, it also
adds that there is a very valuable document that people have gone in
search of already. The cast is meant to explain to the player the
reasoning behind the portal appearing in the living room (once the video
is over), and more importantly, it builds curiosity and purpose for the
player that will prompt them in. Map: Upon
entering the library the player sees a map on a table. Having a map
uses the metaphor of a treasure hunt to indicate the player they are
searching for something in particular. It adds an element of difficulty
and object searching in-par with what the player has seen before in
movies, games, etc. Puzzle: In
the final room there is a puzzle, it is not obvious to the user at
first but it is the only interactable element in the room. The puzzle is
a lock-key where the missing piece fits perfectly on the pyramid, there
are a few pieces scattered around the table, but only one is the key.
Once the player inserts the cube in the pyramid a secret scroll appears.
The puzzle has a small element of difficulty which helps to add an
element of accomplishment for the player.
2. Contextual Assets There
are assets that are unnecessary to the flow of the game, but which are
important for the story to make sense. They incorporate contextual
information about the time setting of the game, some examples are
papyruses, statues, textures, etc.
Hieroglyphics: The
walls throughout the different sections in the library are covered in
textures with hieroglyphics and images of Anubis, Osiris, etc. These
elements immediately set the player in our target era, Ancient Egypt.
The notion of Ancient Egypt carries mystery and knowledge, there are
many myths surrounding that time period we don’t know so much about. How
did they make the pyramids, what did they know back then that we do not
know nowadays. Scrolls/Papyrus: There
are shelves around the pyramid that are populated with thousands of
scrolls. They help the player become aware of how much knowledge there
was that we do not know about because it was lost. The image of the
amount of information is meant to trigger empathy in the player and also
purpose to find what they are looking for in the library. Statues: Statues are the opposite of scrolls, they are some of the artifacts that survived from Ancient Egypt. They
represent the wealth of those times, statues are often embedded with
precious stones. Having them in the final room of the library speaks to
the value of this room and reminds the player that they are in a very
venerated place; knowledge was a central pillar in the time. 3. Immersion Elements The
immersion elements are the small details that make the experience more
immersive, they are meant to trigger familiar memories of how elements
behave in different circumstances. They encompass passive things like
hearing a page flip on the library or a rope twist as the elevator
rises, to active things where the player has to push a lever to reveal a
secret passageway. Below are some examples described.
Torches/Audio: The
library is illuminated by torches hooked on the walls, in making these
torches we follow the players mental model which dictates that fire
flickers and crisps the closer you get to it; light intensifies, and
your face gets hot glowing with the heat. It also reminds the player of
what was the fate of the library: burned under the incendio by Julius
Caesar. There are also several audio elements distributed through the
library. Some are actionable such as the shelf moving to show the secret
passageway or the elevator lifting, while others are passive such as
having page flip sounds in the background to simulate a real library.
Light/TV Flickering: When
the News Broadcast is over, the TV and lights in the room start
flickering. Our aim in this interaction is to bring a classical
experience seen in many movies and shows: electronics turn haywire when
there is a paranormal event happening (i.e. Stranger Things, The
Terminator, A Quiet Place, etc). This experience follows the expectation
set during the broadcast; before the portal appears electronics behave
abnormally.
Corridors: A
video game in VR involves a different interaction mechanism for going
across levels, the standard reference of the screen fading should not be
used. To improve the immersion experience, we chose to create a
seamless transition across scenes; we used dark corridors. The player
can see the other scene from one end of the corridor and as they are
making their way there, the scene changes. We purposely eliminated as
many reference points are possible to make the switch seamless.
Challenges
While we are very pleased with the end product of this project, the team
faced several hurdles while developing the game. Due to COVID-19, we
were abruptly forced to adapt to remote development -- losing access to
on-campus computers and VR equipment, and forced to meet completely
online. This was particularly difficult, as only one member of our team
owned a VR headset and was able to actively test the experience as we
worked on it. As a result, members who did not own VR rigs tested their
work with a 3D character model; once the environment and core mechanics
were working in traditional 3D, the member with the VR headset then
ported the 3D game for VR, building in the VR interactions.
The
other challenge we faced was perhaps more routine: developing a VR game
in Unity/ SteamVR with little prior experience was difficult. While
learning a new development environment is certainly doable, SteamVR in
Unity is experimental and buggy -- exacerbated by a lack of robust
documentation or a large online community (with archived forums, etc).
Further, SteamVR in Unity simply is not executable on MacOS currently,
forcing our team to do testing exclusively on Windows. As a result of
all of this, we relied primarily on personal contacts, YouTube
tutorials, and trial and error to learn, a process that was ultimately
effective but time-consuming.