SUMMARY
For the second project for the first term, we have to create an escape room experience. This is a group project, and the class is divided into three groups, with each group containing 5 to 6 people. A WhatsApp group was created for communication. Unfortunately I was really ill for the first week so I could not attend the meet up discussions. I was assigned to create the countdown animation for the players later. This reflection will mainly focus on the technical problems I encountered during making of this animation, and how it got improved throughout the 3-day playtest sessions.
WORKING ON THE NARRATIVE
We got access to the room so we had a rough idea of how big the room is and what resources in the room can we use. There was a monitor, and it can be used to play the video.
Later on, the team decided the theme of this room escape: a spacecraft has lost control and is wandering into the black hole, and the four players, separated into two 2-person groups by an impenetrable wall, have to resolve this situation within 30 minutes. Many of the puzzles in this room requires teams from both sides of the wall to collaborate, however they may only use verbal assistance and cannot see through or pass objects to the other side of the wall.
My main work was to create the countdown animation for the players that is to be played on the screen. As it was a space theme, I decided to considerate the ambient music as a part of the design as well. The endings of the countdown were clear: there were two versions, the players either complete or fail the escape within the time, so two segments have to be created.
I chose to use Unity Engine as the tool to create the countdown sequences, and the first thing to consider here was: should the videos be real-time rendered or pre-recorded clips? Considering the characteristics of the puzzles and the cables available in the rooms, I decided to create two pre-recorded clips, one is the full 30-minute countdown with a bad ending game over sequence, and the other being the good ending sequence, and will be played when the players escape the room. Once the players enter the room and were briefed, staff members will play the countdown sequence, and the good ending sequence will be played manually if the players complete the escape room within the time. It was not the most elegant way, but it was an easy way.
Another thing to note is that since the room will be divide into two separate parts, two screens have to be set up in order to let all players see the countdown, but we came up with a workaround during the second day of the playtest sessions: a second staff member will put a laptop on the other side of the room, and two sides play the videos simultaneously.
Designing the UI
After deciding the workflow and knowing the specs, I began to design the countdown sequence. I had to decide what kind of the UI should I use? How should the sequence be portrayed? How do I let the players aware that there is a clock ticking, rather than ignoring the screen and just think of it as a decoration to build up the atmosphere?
After few attempts, I figured that the digits should be clear enough in order to let players see. In the end a traditional Helvetica font was used, with some random symbols adding the immersion. The UI panel was also curved as to make it more futuristic.
Creating the Space
As for the main video content, I decided to create a custom gravity system with real-time rendered physics.
But first the planets and the black hole have to be created. After watching some tutorials, I created several celestial bodies using particle systems and point light sources. The black hole, encountered at the end of the clip, was added with additional visual effects and a shaded that I found that can simulate how light behaves around a black hole.
Setting up the Gravitational Field (with Codes!)
Now to the physics part. The camera is really flying towards a vast space with multiple planets, each with their own mass and all effecting the gravitational field. I did not use the built-in gravity physics because it only treats gravity as a force with fixed constant and all gravitation lines are all in parallel, merely simulating the gravity close to the ground. Whereas in the space, gravitational forces are unevenly distributed across an infinite field.
The gravitational force at an arbitrary point is affected by the multiplication of two objects’ masses and the inverse square of the distance between two points. Adding all objects’ forces together, and we will get the total force affecting on this point. After few testing and the tweak of the constant parameter g, the system is set, and a force field is created.
Now that the physics part is set, I can move on to improve the visuals. The next step I did was creating a camera shaking system. Using the gravitational information gathered from the previous system, I can add camera shake based on the magnitude of the gravitational force. A threshold value is added so that small forces are ignored, then the shakiness is increased linearly once the force reaches the threshold.
Below is the editor inspector and the excerpt code I wrote for the gravity field generation based on the explanations of the previous three paragraphs, the comments explain how each segment of the codes work.
This system is later added with audio cues. The larger the force is, the louder the ambient noise will become. However to prevent distractions to the players the volume is adjusted multiple times, and is finalised in the first day of the playtest sessions. In the last three minutes, the sun that the camera is flying to suddenly changes into a gigantic black hole, adding intensions to the players.
GAMEPLAY SESSIONS
The gameplay sessions last three days, 13 to 15 November 2019. The guests on the first day were other students from the class and students from the last year. I was in the room and observe for one session, and the discussions between the players really got really intense. People were, towards the end, almost shouting out words instead of completing a full sentence. And because only two people can see the countdown that day, not every player was aware of the time left. The audio cues did help reminding the players that how much time is left. Throughout the first day, we understand that the written rules for some puzzles may be too hard to understand for non-native English speakers, and some errors in the puzzles were spotted as well, but most people gave positive feedbacks on the theme and the settings.
Some symbols that mimic alien languages were removed in the second day of the playtest, to prevent misunderstanding of the puzzles because these symbols were not part of the puzzles and were unnecessary. The videos were improved as well, mainly the audio volume because the sound effects were sometimes too loud and unbalanced. A second screen, i.e. laptop, was placed on the other side of the room, working as a second monitor.
On the third day, the gameplay sessions got smoother. Guest players including people who work in this industry were invited in the second and the third day of the sessions. They gave positive feedback on the theme and the visuals as well, both the props and the videos.
CONCLUSION
The gravity field system I built can be further elaborate and become a standalone interactive project by adding random planet generations and other features.
On the other hand, and in conclusion, I realise that I may not have pay enough contribution to this group project at the beginning, so I mostly followed the guidelines and tried my best on my works. Room escape is also not what I am good at, so I did learn a lot from this experience. Teamwork is really important, and it will be more evident in more collaborative projects in the future.
