Introduction
As a project for the Udacity VR nanodegree program, I was challenged to complete the design and development of a memory puzzle game.
The goal of the game was to design, develop and work with users new to VR in order to test the game to create a comfortable VR experience.
Puzzler is a game in which a random pattern is displayed to the user, which the user must memorize and repeat the same pattern in order to move on.
Puzzler
Statement of purpose: Puzzler is an immersive virtual reality experience in which users play a simple yet challenging memory puzzle game as they fight their way through various levels to complete their adventure.
Persona
Name: Rick Evergreen
Occupation: 19 year old student attending a university
Quote: “I’m excited to try virtual reality for the first time.”
Description: Rick is a busy college student, but when he has time, he enjoys playing new PC games. He especially enjoys playing adventure style games for fun and likes solving logical puzzles.
Initial Design
After being given the challenge to develop a logic game by Udacity, I was inspired to create a dungeon/adventure game that would involve Puzzler.
I started off by brainstorming how many levels I would include, then designing the underground dark dungeon setting I would create for the user.
I decided to include 8 levels for my adventure game, as I could use the 7 colors of the rainbow to represent 7 levels, and a final boss level at the end.
I began sketching my initial thoughts of how I thought my game would be here:
Initially, I planned for the user to start their adventure off in a dark room.
After designing the first two rooms of the game, I conducted a few user tests to test the mood and environment of the setting.
User Testing
In order to check whether the overall comfort and scaling was appropriate, I asked my friend several questions about the dimensions of the experience and about the readability of the UI text in the first room.
User Test 1:
- How is the scaling of the room? How comfortable is the experience?
Tester: It feels like I’m very short when I’m walking in the dungeon. Other than that, the experience feels fine.
2. Is reading the text on the panel comfortable? How do you feel about the size of the text itself?
Tester: Yeah it’s comfortable and the text is big and definitely readable.
After making changes to the scaling of the room and the height of the camera, I worked on the lighting in the second room by adding torches the project provided. I also added a background audio clip to establish the mysterious suspenseful mood I wanted to create.
Next, I conducted a test on the same person asking about the lighting and the mood.
User test 2:
- How does the lighting of the second room feel?
Tester: It feels dark, but I can still see the room. Maybe the torches in the room can have fire.
2. How would you describe the mood?
Tester: The mood feels dark and ominous. It feels like I’m in a sort of dungeon.
After the test, I went ahead and searched the Unity Asset Store to find torches to implement for my game. I swapped out the torches around the room, but still kept the room dark enough to keep the dark mood I wanted.
After finishing designing the basis of my game, I decided to implement several features to make the game more realistic.
Game Design Implementations
For this project, I wanted to create as life-like a simulation as possible, so I implemented a variety of life-like features. During the process, I found lots of online 3D models I could use for my game and found various sound effects/music to use from www.freesound.org
Movement
I decided to implement simulated player movement in the game by having the camera “walk” from level to level. I accomplished this by implementing a system that would slightly bob the camera up and down, creating a walking effect. I then created the simulation of walking more realistically by adding a footstep sound effect whenever the player would move.
Audio
Whenever the player clicked on an object, a corridor would open or an elevator would descend, I made sure to add visual cues to ensure the best experience possible. Additionally, I decided to use different audio clips for “winning” and “losing” than the audio clips provided. I also used multiple audio clips to create certain types of moods I wanted in the game.
Visuals
One of the most important features of the game were visuals. I made sure to determine the appropriate lighting for each scene during the game in order to attain the mood I wanted. I also made sure to have the dragon display animations at the end to provide realism.
Level Design
As I built the different levels, my overall design of the game did not change much from the sketch, as I stuck to having 8 levels of game play.
As I built the game, I decided to add several additional models to enhance the game experience, such as the skeleton in one of the rooms, and an animated dragon as the boss level.
As I had planned, I created an experience in which the levels would grow progressively harder and harder in some way. The user would either succeed three times in total to progress to the next level or fail three times, which restarts their game.
However, one major change I decided to make to the game was the use of an informative text based UI system throughout the game. While I originally planned for blue panels to pop up throughout the game conveying what was happening in the game, I decided not to implement that, because I felt that it wouldn’t exactly fit in the context of the game. Instead, I let the user figure out how to play the game and experience the game alone.
Nevertheless, I did keep the panel with text in the dark room in the beginning of the game, because I felt that it would help set the mood of the game.
Walk through
I assembled a walk-through of the entire adventure based game here. Hope you enjoy!
Explanation of Walkthrough (Final Result)
In my walkthrough, the user starts off in the main screen and can click on “Play” whenever ready to start the adventure.
Once the game starts, the user is found confused in a dark room not remembering anything of the past. An ominous audio clip starts in the background and all sources of lighting are eliminated in the first room to establish a dark and suspenseful mood.
Awhile later, as torches are heard magically being lit up around the dark room, a mysterious mood is established as the user should feel a bit fearful of the new environment he/she is in.
A moment later, the sound of the sliding corridor doors open up and the user is found walking through the entrance of the dungeon into the first level of the game.
This room has torches placed around, providing adequate lighting. A mysterious lamp appears out of nowhere, prompting the user to click on it to see what would happen. After the lamp is clicked, the first level begins and red orbs pop out of nowhere. A random pattern is then generated among the orbs. At this point of the game, using visual and audio cues from the orbs, the user is expected to figure out how the game is played. If they fail the level three times, the game simply restarts to the dark room and they can attempt to figure out the rules of the game once again.
Once the user figures out the rules and learns to repeat the pattern of the orbs being pounded, the user must continue repeating these random patterns until they either succeed or fail three times. The first level repeats a pattern length of three orbs. Once the user succeeds the first level three times, the red orbs immediately disappear with a poof sound effect.
After the first level is complete, another corridor door opens as the user walks through the following entrance. Confused, yet another door opens and the user is walked through the entrance into the second level (orange orbs).
The lighting in this room is less, making the setting of the game spookier. In this level, the pattern length increases to four orbs. Once again, the user must succeed the level three times in order to proceed.
As the door to the next room opens, now there is virtually no lighting in the third level except from the yellow orbs themselves, building up suspense for the user. Again, the level gets harder, now with a puzzle length of five.
Once completed, though expecting to walk into another room, the user instead walks onto a cramped platform-like ground in the darkness.
A few seconds later, the platform screeches as it makes its way underground to the lower level of the dungeon. Once reached, the user walks into a passageway with several torches to complete the fourth level (green orbs). This level has a puzzle length of sixth and appears to have a slightly slower pattern, making it hard to remember which pattern was selected.
When completed, the user continues walking in the passageway, soon encountered by the fifth level (blue orbs). Even more difficult, this level has a puzzle length of seventh and appears to have an even slower pattern.
Once completed, a huge wall begins to open and the user walks into a spacious underground setting. In this large room, there appears to be a huge lit-up demonic statue to the left of the user, perhaps it could be guarding something?
Next, the user walks the way opposite of the statue into a dark tunnel. The user must then complete the sixth level (purple orbs) in order to open the wall blocking the tunnel. The sixth level has a pattern level of seven and appears to have a faster pattern than the ones before, making it somewhat difficult to follow.
At this point, the user can clearly see a lit up room far away at the end of the tunnel. However, as the user continues walking, right before the user reaches the room, the user is encountered with yet another level (pink orbs). By now, even though the puzzle length remains at eight, the pattern is very fast, making it difficult to follow.
At completion, the user walks into the lit-up room seeing a skeleton holding a sword and a coffin behind it.
Awhile later, the torches mysteriously go out and the heavy collapse of something can be heard in the pitch black room. Though everything is not visible in the darkness, the skeleton‘s figure can still be seen in the darkness, spooking the user out.
The background audio clip changes immediately to a suspenseful tone and the user should now feel scared as he/she runs back through the tunnel.
Once the user reenters the spacious room from earlier, the user can now see that the demonic statue has disappeared and the wall behind it has been destroyed.
The user runs along a walkway lit up by violet torches and suspense grows as anything can be bound to happen. The space the user is currently in is pitch black and the user can’t tell how big this underground area may be.
At the end of the ominous walkway, the user walks onto a platform. The platform eventually flies away slowly, lit up by four violet torches. Unable to see anything in the dark, suspense continues to grow.
After about a minute, a lantern pops up out of nowhere. Once clicked, the final boss level begins. Once again, the background audio changes immediately to fit an intense and fearful mood. The white orbs of the final level appear to be in a different form than the rest of the levels as there are now nine orbs in a 3x3 structure. Randomly, lights of red, blue and green flash, revealing a roaring dragon in the background. In this level, the user loses when he/she fails ten times, due to the level’s intense nature.
The level starts off with a slow pattern in the orbs, with a pattern length of eight. Every time the user succeeds, the dragon roars loudly in the background. After three successes, the random lights begin flashing more frequently and the dragon in the background starts walking towards the user.
With the dragon now very close to the user, the pattern speeds up, becoming increasingly difficult to follow. After two more successes, the dragon jumps up from the ground and flies in the air. The random flashes of the lights are now very frequent and the pattern of the orbs speed up so fast it is now extremely difficult to follow.
Even though the puzzle is extremely hard at this time, if the user is able to succeed three more times, the dragon cries out and the adventure finalizes as the user is teleported into a clear opening of a peaceful forest above ground.
It is clearly nighttime in the forest and chirping crickets can be heard in the background. When the user looks around, the user can see a small statue of the dragon from earlier. If the curious user clicks on the dragon, the user mysteriously appears back in the dark room of the game having to restart the adventure.
Conclusion
While this project took a lot of time and effort to create, I was glad Udacity challenged me to be able to design, test, and develop a puzzle game, keeping in mind user comfort, user feedback, and mood.
Managing the development of Puzzler as a whole has been both loads of fun and an educational experience. Throughout the project, I learned about importing 3D models, sound effects, visual cues, establishing mood, and using animation in 3D models.
All in all, I believe I accomplished my goal to create an immersive virtual reality experience in which users can have fun playing a logic based game whilst partaking in an exciting adventure.
Thanks Udacity for this exciting experience!