The Masked Dimension
- Platform: Windows
- Tools: Unity 3D, C#, HTC Vive
- Duration: Summer 2018
- Role: Solo programmer
Main Tasks
- Developed a flexible, event-driven puzzle framework
- Prioritized VR-specific, "natural" interactions for game mechanics (grabbing, pulling, swapping masks)
- Ran playtesting sessions to find bugs and puzzle design oversights
Gameplay
- Classic escape room in VR, with effects not possible in real life
- Use enchanted masks to collect objects and solve puzzles
- Physically interact with cabinets, bookshelves, and more in the search for clues
Overview
The Masked Dimension is a VR escape room I created during the summer of 2018,
for an internship with Castle Steps (a small game studio based in Santa Monica, CA, that made
multiplayer games for VR arcades). As part of the internship, I was given complete freedom in
terms of what I worked on. This included making use of Castle Steps' own testing setup: 600 ft²
of empty floor space, fully monitored by HTC Vive trackers, with a set of backpack-mounted PCs for
untethered VR gameplay.
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To take advantage of this, I decided to create a virtual escape room; while players usually do
have enough space in VR to move their arms and grab things as they would in a physical escape room,
most cannot dedicate enough floor space to emulate the space of a full room. As a result, developers
of VR experiences must choose between making rooms small enough for players to walk around in,
and adding a teleporter tool while keeping the space large. With the free-roam setup, however,
I did have plenty of space available - and thus could make the room large enough to actually
walk across.
Development
While many of the issues I faced in development were related to puzzle design, the ones that stumped me most
had to do with the VR platform - most notably, striking a balance between believable physical
interactions (like burning wood or opening a drawer) and making sure the player couldn't find
clues early, break physical joints, or make the room unsolvable.
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I spent many hours fine tuning physics settings before conceding - and realized that although
the physics math will always be beyond my control, I can guide the player away from destructive
interactions in the first place. This set of fixes - for example, limiting forces from the
player's hand, keeping loose items in large containers, and making objects that haven't been
unlocked yet invisible - proved to be much easier to implement, and didn't upset or confuse
players in the slightest.
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Now, whenever I design a system, I still try to follow the same principle; it's easy to confuse
chaos for complexity, but it is usually possible to reduce the amount of uncontrolled calculations
without reducing the system's appeal.