Puzzler
Documenting the Design of a VR Project
Introduction
Puzzler is a VR game that tests the player’s memory via a “Simon Says” style puzzle. Upon entering the room, the player is presented with a sequence of lights that they must memorize. If the player recreates the puzzle sequence correctly, the player wins the game and exits the room. However, if the player does not solve the puzzle, they will have to try again. The sequence must be recreated successfully to finish the game.
During the development of Puzzler, I documented my design process from start to finish. You will be able to see the progression from the initial sketches, user testing and iterations, through the final product.
Process
Statement of Purpose: Design an aesthetically pleasing VR game that tests the player’s memory via a “Simon Says” style puzzle. To best achieve this goal, I utilized the following iterative design process:
· Identify the target persona for this game
· Initial sketches
· Implement the base design
· Solicit feedback via user testing
· Make improvements based on the user feedback.
Persona
Name: Kelcie
Age: 35
Occupation: Education Executive
Quote: “I deal with motion sickness in all walks of my life, so I am a little apprehensive when it comes to VR.”
Description: She is fairly tech-savvy, from a user perspective. She is also very creative artistically and when brainstorming ideas, so I am looking forward to her feedback.
Sketches
Sketches were created to plan out the environment layout and UI design:


User Testing
Scale and Mood — The first test focused on how the user felt about the scale and mood of the environment.
With regards to scale, the user indicated she felt good. The feedback regarding the mood was that it was somewhat disjointed. The structure looked like an old castle, but the lighting appeared too bright to be generated by the torches on the walls. The lighting was throwing off the atmosphere created by the building.
The torch lighting was adjusted by reducing the range and intensity, to give the effect of a dimly light room in a castle.
User Interface — The second user test focused on the size, placement and readability of the UI elements.
The user indicated the start and restart panels were of a good size. The placement seemed to be too high, causing the user to look up sharply to read/interact. Also, the panels were too close to easily read them.
I made adjustments to the height of the panels and increase the distance between the player and the panels. This seemed to do the trick, as a quick retest by the user confirmed the improvements.
Movement — The third user test focused on the comfortability of the movement through the game.
The user indicated the speed of movement was comfortable and that it felt smooth. Given the user’s history of motion sickness with just about everything (cars, planes, boats, etc.), I took this as a good sign and left the configuration as is.
Final — The final user test focused on the overall experience.
The feedback was mostly positive, while specifically noting the color changes to the orbs and the addition of the mountains to the environment. The orb color change made them feel more dynamic to the user. While the mountains helped contribute to the overall ominous feel of the environment. There was one tweak that needed attention, as the user felt the orbs were a little too close for comfort. This made the user feel like she needed to move her head left and right too much, while following the orb light up sequence.
To resolve this issue with the distance between the user and the orbs, I implemented the same distance used for the user/UI panel interactions. This gave the 3 interactions points a consistent feel throughout.
Breakdown of the final piece
The final implementation of the game can be seen through the screenshots below. The user enters the experience and is greeted by the start panel UI. Crickets are chirping in the background, helping to set the mood. The user is welcomed to the game and given a button to start the experience. The start button changes to a neon yellow when hovered over and changes to a dark grey when selected. This helps notify to the user that the actions they are taking are registering within the game.

After clicking start, the user moves into the dungeon and stops in front of 5 floating orbs. The room is dimly lit with torches on the wall, but the orbs are bright and draw the user’s attention. Ominous music plays in the background, to add to the mysterious mood. The orbs light up and emit a sound in a random sequence, then stop; indicating now it is time for the user to play the game. The user now attempts to replicate the orb sequence they just witnessed. The orbs are highlighted when hovered over and play a sound when selected. Choose the sequence wisely and you exit the dungeon. Choose unwisely and you remain in the dungeon until you succeed.

Once the user exits the dungeon, they are greeted with a congratulatory message and given the option to restart the game.

Conclusion
The Puzzler VR game was a fun project that stressed the importance of documenting the design process. I think getting user feedback early and often, throughout the development, is enormously helpful. The iterative design process helps to keep modifications manageable as opposed to having to make major changes at the end, when the bulk of the design has been implemented and many pieces are intertwined.
Next Steps
The next steps for this game could be to allow the user to choose the difficulty setting. The higher the difficulty they choose, the longer the sequence the user must memorize.
Credits
Flame prefab created by Webroid Studio — downloaded from the Unity Asset Store.
