The Crowley Zone

Genre: First-person experimental VR puzzle game

Software used: Unity
Hardware used: Oculus Rift DK2, Leap Motion VR, Perception Neuron

Role: Programmer, visual effects

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I was brought on to help out a team who was working on a virtual reality game, one that also used an alternative source of input. For this it had been decided on that a gestural input device would be used to create a first-person wizard sim, allowing the player to move their hands in order to cast spells in order to solve puzzles. Our group consisted of 4 programmers, 2 artists, and 1 producer. Two of the other programmers worked to get the input and output devices to work properly, while the other programmer and I worked separately to work on system code and the programming of features independent of the external hardware. Initially we had started using the Perception Neuron as our input device, but towards the end of the project our hardware started to malfunction, so we had to switch to Leap Motion VR and rush to get it to work before we had to finish.

 

My work consisted of general testing tools, the code for the player (minus the gestural input), assisting with coding some of the puzzles, and the projectiles and their effects on the world. Later on I would be tasked to get the camera to rotate without the player needing to spin around. We had intended for the player to be able to play the game sitting down, but the others had a hard time coming up with an idea on how to turn the player without much complications due to the player's sitting position. I had an idea on how to perform this due to familiarity of concepts in first-person games on the Wii, which had used a bounding box to determine when to rotate the player. Due to the turning of the player being based on the Y-rotation, it was a simple feat to code a way that used a vertical slice of a sphere that was always positioned in front of the player to control the rotation. You can view the code that would be placed on the player here, and the code that would be placed on the sphere slice here.

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I was mostly there as a back-up coder, but early in the project's life I had brought up that visual immersion is something that takes a stronger importance in a VR experience. Due to my familiarity of Unity's particle system (having used it for a prior project) and how I was the only person on the team who had such familiarity, they would also give me the task of working on some visual design work. This would include the projectiles (including effects for casting, particles and trails on the spells, animations for when they hit an object or if they're out for too long, camera effects, visual reactions to spells, and general things to help flesh out the world we would put the player in. I had not coded in such a way that had kept particles and visual effects in mind, so that was also a good learning experience for me.

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Working with two devices we hadn't worked with before was a very difficult task, as well as trying to create something using both that would be enjoyable. Creating a game meant to be played in virtual reality requires a much different feel than creating a game without, and figuring out how to properly immerse the player in the experience was quite the task!

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Unfortunately most of the work I did for this was done on a non-personal computer and I cannot access the final project file, so I can only provide screenshots of the testing room I had created.