Overview
A single-player VR experience set in a surreal cosmic theme that encourages an immersive mind-bending experience with the space-time manipulation mechanics where the player has to visit and fix all the cracked dimensions to restore the balance in the universe.
Genre :
Adventure & Exploration
Platform :
Occulus Quest 2
Target Audience:
13+
Tools :
Unity & Blender
Trailer
Brainstorming
Story
This is the journey of a man who is stuck inside his own head. He is trying to rebuild his consciousness, fragments by fragments through revisiting his altered memories.
For him, rebuilding the world was as real as reconstructing his consciousness. He can visit these worlds that he has unknowingly created by merging his memories with imagination.
Fixing them would eventually fix his perception of life and also restore his consciousness.
Gameplay & Mechanics
The game uses only hand gestures and poses as input, where the accurate gesture produces result or else is not registered.
The game is based on exploration and adventure, there are different types of challenges that come across the player in the form of quests. Challenges like puzzles, dodge % proceed and more.
For the player starting the game first the basic movement cover the following :
There is a main world which is destroyed (the universe).
Where the player constructs the essential elements of the life to live on. In this world there are no challenges, just explorations and interactions.
The quests (fragment of memories) are parallel time & space. Since the player is a fragment inside the mind which is trying to transport signals through mind, it dies within a time span of few minutes and from there on another fragment continues. When entered to these quests the player becomes older and older every time.
The main mechanic is the time and space manipulation,
which is triggered when two conditions are met. First from the left hand - peace symbol (which marks the start) then
second is the rainbow motion of right hand which rotates the body/ cracks.
The other mechanics in the game is for dashing left and right. The trigger is non-dashing hand should be posed as a fist. In which the the posing open palm 90 degrees to ground. Then moving it in the direction of dash.
Most important point : Break the gesture to cancel/ stop any interaction/ action.
Art & Style
The constrains for a VR based game are a lot, like FPS should be constant all the time (recommended 90 FPS).
The 3D objects like debris and other structure can take a lot of processing and might end up in fluctuating FPS. Hence a less weight 3D object should suffice.
A low poly 3D models with a toon shader were taken as art style.
It also justifies the color space we can imagine and the fantasies that the imaginary world has.
Level Design
It was given fact that excessive amount of time using a VR can result into a dizzy feeling. Usually mind reads things around one self in a VR and tries to relate somethings with the real world. When these two collide in mind, it says something is wrong.
Some people find VR a very easy media to watch, play or even chat with. But some get very dizzy and might end up having a headache.
The levels should be short enough for the players to enjoy without any stress of any kind. So the total game length will vary around 10-15 mins. Since the character which the player is controlling is just a fragment with age limit of brain, The total play time can be X-minutes which is a loop.
A loop where player needs to certain quests/ tasks and start again. The overall building of characters own consciousness will be permanent after being set up.
Hospital - Level Design
The first level of the game in which the players wakes up and tries to figure out about the time and space. Since the player is suffering a hospital was an apt situation . The level covers only the forward movement and turning movement gestures respectively.
The is a level to make player get into the VR and get comfortable with the visuals.
The movement are kept very slow being an interior space and the feedback by the player about the situation.
The aim is to make player wander around a little bit, so that they can adjust with all the surroundings.
This was achieved with composition of tree roots and branches, it turns out that the player took right turn 90% of the time as expected.
Main World
After exiting the hospital the player reaches the main world. The main world is the place where all the construction of the consciousness are established.
The player feels different now, the movement is faster, there is no ground/ gravity.
Player has to move towards the beam of light.
The player performs the first time manipulation in this level with gestures and poses.
The major objective of the level is to show the current state of the world, and how to align cracks in the space to travel through the crack in them.
The manipulation is done while standing on a platform where the player gets the power to change space & time.
Quest - 1
Player travels through the crack and reaches a new world built with the memories of school classroom. The player recollects the elements of the memory and finds it to complete the memory.
The main objective is to reach the tree, while there are paper crumbles (asteroids) coming the players way.
The player can dodge these asteroids with the dash gesture left/ right, if hit by it then the player gets pushed back again and again on hits.
After reaching the tree the player need to time manipulate an apple which falls near the guy. This results in player landing back on the main world.
The player needs to move towards the tree, since the composition of a singular island in between and a person sitting (newton) beneath it is rather an interesting point.
Main World*
After the apple falls player lands back on main world, where now the structure are back and dust settling down.
The reference is that the falling of apple connects with the gravity, which now has been discovered in the main world (consciousness).
The main objective in the main world is to find crack in the space.
The later versions will consist of making/ com-positioning of structure by the player.
Quest - 2
After finding the cracks again, the player reaches an under water level where everything is submerged and there is only a house and a car crashed near it.
The player enters the house and interacts with objects around, to find that it's players own house . This memory is about the past of the character.
The player needs to interact with the highlighted objects,time manipulate them in a sequential manner.
The family members of the character are player's mom, dad, grandma & childhood self. Each objects triggers a memory visualization,
Photo frame : From an old broken frame to a slightly dusty. To the final form of the new frames.
Player time manipulates the frames to trigger it.
The old TV set : The old TV set on manipulation shows the transformation how it was used to be. The final trigger is where the childhood player is playing video games while family is leaving.
The Telephone: There are three stages currently broken. Restored where the phone is on phone table. The last is grandma talking on the phone about an accident.
The Car : The player turns back the car to unscratched condition where the parents of the player waving .
The main objective of this level is to bring back the life in the main world.
Main World*
Performing quests and restoring the essential blocks of life in the world, The main objective of the level- to meet character's younger self and hand over the powers.
Scene Progression
The scene are the representation of a fragment of consciousness.
Scene Progression
Teacher — Newton
While creating the classroom world, the character used a fragment of his memories where his teacher looks like Newton.
Water — Life
Character's parents lost their lives in an accident, but while bringing the water back to the main world, many lives are restored.
Universe — Consciousness
As everything is happening inside character's head while being in a coma, rebuilding the world indicates rebuilding his consciousness.
Self Loop
Meeting character's younger self in the end means now theweak fragment of consciousness is ready to transfer the knowledge to the other fresh fragments.
Gameplay
Crack In Space
Team :
Chaitanya Verma -
Pawan Tirpude -
Jajeet Shaymkunvar -
Mayur Battinwar -
Mayuri Meshram -
Mechanics, Programming & VFX
Gameplay & Mechanics
Art, Environment & Character
Programming & Assets
Props & Assets
Time -
Guided by -
10 weeks
Mrs. Amrapali & Mr. Chirag
