Virtual Reality Escape Room

Gameplay & Level Design

The goal for this project was to utilise as many virtual reality mechanics as possible as a tool to teach new players VR. An escape room allows for many different mechanics in a small area. This game would take place in a physical area laid out on the floor to allow for free roaming with the Meta Quest Pros.

Built in Unreal Engine 5.

Process…

Solo Project | Unreal Engine 5 | Blender

Escape Academy | Coin Crew Games | 2022

Step 1 | Research

This was my first VR project therefore a lot of research was required to get started. This needed to cover many topics such as mechanics, UI, player feedback, and player interactions.

Not only was VR research required, but insights into escape rooms were also required. I have played many in recent years and therefore existing knowledge could come into play - however escape room inspired games have become more popular in the last 5 or so years and therefore I needed to see how these were designed for virtual spaces.

Step 2 | Moodboard

The theme of the room would dictate the puzzles. The dimensions of the physical space were quite small and I went through iterations of how to best utilise the space; making the level vertical was the best option and therefore it had to be tower like. My initial idea was a clock tower, something with beams, stairways, elevators and lot of verticality.

Step 3 | Puzzle Designs

The core gameplay was escape room inspired while ensuring cooperation; one player shouldn’t be able to solve and complete the puzzle by themselves. I wanted to move away from number locks and keys that you would find in physical rooms, taking advantage of the benefits of a digital setting.

Splitting up players in separate rooms in some sections ensured one person couldn’t run the show and required team work. This also allowed for VR mechanic such as passing objects to each other.

Step 4 | Blueprints

Many bespoke blueprints were created for the experience. This was especially challenging as I was using a medium I had never used before in VR. I was using a plug-in (VR Expansion) which handled all VR interactivity. This project had a huge learning curve where I tried to understand the intricacies of VR

Step 5 | Blender

For this project I wanted to learn how to use Blender. Up until this point I had done everything with Unreal Engine’s built in tools however I wanted to branch out and use an industry tool. Much of my knowledge in building basic assets in Unreal could be carried over into this program, for example, using and shaping different cubes to get my final shape.

Due to this being a solo project, I had to create most of the final assets. This meant I could really get stuck in to Blender and not simply create basic cubes. I combined my assets with a low poly village pack from the Unreal Store to create the level.

VR Escape Room - Design Deck