udacityvr

[udacityvr]

Puzzler - A VR Experience

INTRODUCTION

About This Project Puzzler is a class project for the VR Mobile 360 Developer Nanodegree Program on Udacity.com. Assets and code were provided by Udacity to build the project, which I spent 4 weeks over January and February 2019 developing. This project was developed using the Unity game engine.

The most difficult part of this project was trying to troubleshoot a number of compiler errors that I accidentally caused while editing the code. I never found out what caused them, and that haunts me to this day. I just remade the project and it worked.

Though this Puzzler will be very similar to the projects other students are doing in this class, I have tried to make it unique by making some changes to the environment with a custom skybox and a different take on the ‘room’ the user plays the game in.  

About Puzzler Puzzler is an Android VR app made for new VR users who want an engaging game that will let them get familiar with VR game mechanics. This app was built in Unity by yours truly!

The concept of Puzzler is a ‘simon says’-type puzzle game. A user clicks start to enter a room, where they solve a puzzle. When the puzzle is completed, they move out of the room and have the option to restart the experience.

The Finished Puzzler Experience Starting out

Solving the puzzle

Nice work! Let’s try it again!

See a video of the experience here:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1KjCuazBnV5yCH9OZEPthujKw-7O3WiY_

PROCESS

Puzzler Concept Puzzler started out as a simple VR game for people with little familiarity with VR to start experiencing the medium.

A ‘simon-says’-style puzzle is a well-known type of puzzle, so it would be easy for new users to understand and solve this challenge.

Understanding Users Here is the persona that was referenced when creating Puzzler:

The persona was helpful for keeping in mind the type of person who would be interacting with the finished Puzzler experience

Sketching it out Before building the Puzzler game, I explored ideas for the experience by sketching the environment and interfaces users would interact with:

I knew I wanted Puzzler to have a mysterious and magical atmosphere that would intrigue the user, but be clear what the user needed to do to complete the game.

Building the game In Unity, I set up the room the user would play the game in, and created UI panels for the start and end of the game prompting users to start or restart the experience. Then I added the game logic into the scene, so the game could be played. Finally, I added the background audio and audio cues for the game, making it a full multi-sensory experience.

User Testing and Iteration Testing the first Puzzler

The first iteration of Puzzler looked like this:

Users readily clicked on the ‘start’ button, but once in the game they were unclear what the objective was. The UI panels were also too close to the user, and they weren’t able to see the entire box which made them feel squashed. The user also moved into the play area too quickly, and they had no time to orient themselves (and no time to build suspense!).

Testing Puzzler 2 For the next iteration of Puzzler, I added more descriptive UI text, and spaced the beginning, play area, and end space further from each other so the user had time to anticipate where they were going, and would feel that they were clearly moving from outside the puzzle into it, and then back out again.

This made the game easier for users to play, but it did not convey the mystical and magical atmosphere I wanted for the game.

Testing Puzzler 3 For the final iteration of puzzler, I decided to add ground and sky to the experience. I also made the ‘room’ an abandoned ruin in the middle of an empty desert because I had to rebuild this project 3 times to get it to work and that was a fast way to make a room that still looked cool to enhance the feeling of mystery for the user. I changed the color of the lighting and the orbs to more traditional ‘magic’ colors.

Finally Puzzler was ready to go!

THE FINAL PRODUCT - PUZZLER The finished Puzzler game intrigues users when they find themselves in a desert at night, beckoned by a mysterious ruin to attempt an ancient magical trial. Will they succeed? Only they can know.

When the user begins the experience, they are given a ‘riddle’ that explains the game:

Above them, the serene night sky:

They start the game:

And find themselves moving into a ruin lit with cool green light:

They stand in the doorway, observing 5 glowing orbs:

The orbs begin to light up in sequence:

And the user follows the pattern shown:

Success! They’ve completed the game and can try again:

As you can see, Puzzler is a thrill for players of all ages!

CONCLUSION

Puzzler was a challenging and rewarding project which looks kind of cool. It was the first VR game I ever made, so it is notable step in my possible future VR career.

Next Steps Someday I may update the sounds in the game, because I don’t think crickets would really live in a barren desert. The sound of wind might be more appropriate. I will have to find an appropriate sound clip to enhance the experience. 

Thank you for reading!