The Setting of Game

This is game created using Unreal Engine 4. It is based on the setting of a intricate 3D maze. The goal for the player is to pass all the obstacles and traps in order to find and reach the preset destination point. There is a time limit for the player indicated by a “health bar” on the upper left corner of the interface. The player can also collect crystals to increase his health (i.e. prolong the remaining time).
The user must be able to walk on the 6 different faces of the cube without falling because of the gravity. To achieve this, we used a plug-in of Unreal Engine called “Adventure Kit”. We also modified the blueprints of the one-person character.

Challenges

In order to create some challenges for the players:

• the start and destination points are on the opposite sides of the cube
• there are many dead ends along the way
• a series of traps are designed, players have to avoid by jumping or grasping some of the walls with special physical parameters
• the texture of the walls changes colors within a gradient, and the floor has reflective texture, which confuse the sense of orientation of players

Incentives/Distractions + Hints

• As a type of incentives, blue crystals have been placed on a series of spots. When the players collect them, the players can increase their health (i.e. prolong their remaining time before they fail the mission)
• However, some of those crystals are intentionally placed on the ways to the dead ends. So the incentives also serve as distractions.
• To help the player to find the correct way toward the destination, and to enhance the VR immersive experience, a series of sound elements of bird chirping are placed on the correct path. Those sound elements have attenuation so the players can choose to trust what they hear in order to choose which direction they go

The Architectural Environment

There are three basic parts of the architecture model: the wall as obstacles, the walk-able paths on the floor, the indented traps which will “kill” the player if they fall in. While the reflective texture are applied to the walk-able floors, the walls have an emissive texture which gradually changes colors within a gradient. Global illumination was used to avoid the dark shadows on any of the 6 faces of the cube.