Lonely this Christmas

A mind-boggling, perception warping VR horror game where the player experiences things that makes them question reality, which is achieved by taking a variety of technologies and creatively bringing them together.

DESIGN
SUMMARY
CODE

Short Summary

This project was made during a school assignment called "Hybrid Space" in which we were challenged to combine real world interaction with a virtual game to create an innovative gameplay experience.

Our goal was to create a horror game that would not only scare people, but also screw with their perception of what is real and what is not.

To achieve this, we used a multitude of hardware devices to create eerie and disorientating scenarios for the player.

Achievements

Combined multiple cameras and a VR device in Unity

Created a custom VR controller

(albeit a prototype)

Synchronized a virtual office chair to the office chair the player sits on

Succesfuly scared people! :D

notice how she tries to cover her eyes but is unable to

Tricks we used

Showing the first person view on a monitor to prevent players from looking behind them.

Touching their hair and blowing air in their neck

Playing pre-recorded footage to show things that aren't there

A power bar that the player has to keep up to prevent the lights from going out

Letting the player believe that they are alone in the room

A virtual room that's an exact copy of the actual room the player is in

Destroying the player's sense of awareness

By showing the player a pre-recorded video of the "ghost" standing in the corner of the room, we make the player believe that the ghost is actually standing there.

We then switch to the first person camera. The first thing the player does is look to the corner to see the ghost, but they are surprised by the fact that the ghost isn't there.

At this point the player should understand that they can't trust what they see, which should make them feel really uneasy.

The climax

In the beginning, the player is welcomed to the room by our host. The host sets them up and promptly leaves the room, or at least that's what the player thinks. The host actually never leaves the room.

Once we have exercised all of our tricks on the player, it is time for the climax. We force the lights to go out and show a pre-recorded video of the ghost walking up behind them. Just as the ghost is about to touch them in the video, the host grabs them by the shoulders and pulls them out of the experience.

Other

There is still a lot more i'd love to write about this project, but sadly enough I don't have the time for it right now, so it will have to wait. For now though, I will leave you with some extra footage of the project.

Behind the scenes

Room with curtains opened

Inside the "control room"

Inspiration

Monobanda 3RD

Five Nights at Freddy's

Controller (Re)Design

We noticed that a lot of people kept putting the controller down on its side. This is unwanted behaviour because it can cause situations in which the controller is out of sight from the VR sensors, causing it to lose its position.

We use the rotation of the controller as the main mechanic of our puzzle and by turning the controller on its side, those rotations become unreliable and can sometimes still trigger the "correct rotation" event, therefor rewarding the player for doing the wrong thing.

Controller Redesign

3D example

Code

Project Repository

We only had 3 weeks for this project, of which we spent a week and a half arranging a place to work, so please keep that in mind when reviewing the quality of the code. (A lot of scripts were written to test their functionality and were never refactored, in order to save time.)

Recording footage code:

‌

AI Website Generator