Experience in creating a quest in reality using Oculus Rift and Leap Motion

Escape room (or quest in reality, quest room) is one of the options for games in reality, where players must solve all kinds of puzzles, being limited in time in a confined space. One of the most common gaming goals is to get out of the room. To do this, you need to go through a chain of tasks that are close in their specificity to puzzles in computer quests, on which the real world factor is superimposed.

Our team VR-AR Lab specializes in projects using virtual reality technology. And it so happened that we became partners in creating two quests in Los Angeles, in one of which, in addition to the usual puzzles, we used the game for Oculus Rift virtual reality glasses and Leap Motion motion capture sensor.
I would like to share my experience working on a similar project. My tasks on it concerned two points. Firstly, consultation in the development of game sequences and puzzles, game design in general. Secondly, the creation and integration into one of the stories of the game in virtual reality, art directing and the management of its development.

Game development specifics for quest rooms

Partners in the USA before connecting our team already had certain ideas about the settings . It was necessary to determine the scenario, game tasks and joint efforts to build a chain of game actions, and also to understand what place the game in virtual reality will occupy in them.

I have some experience working on classic computer quests, which helped a lot at the pre-production stage - it's about writing design documentation, or rather, an approach to structuring it. It was clear that you would need to create a list of possible puzzles for the settings and write a game sequence of actions. But when we briefly studied the analogues of existing projects and visited several rooms, we immediately found our own peculiarities that distinguish similar games from classic computer quests. Here is what we finally managed to identify.

Time factor and cooperation

Unlike computer quests, real escape rooms have unique features that slightly change the approach to developing game situations. The first thing that catches your eye is the time factor and cooperation in the passage of the game by several people.

In classic quests, computer games in the escape room genre, and, for example, in the HOPA (Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure) genre, they do not really like riddles for a while, they knock down many players who are used to meditative gameplay, measured gameplay and such a peculiar discreteness of the game generally. Each game screen in such games can be compared with the illustrated spread of the book, which players can look at as much as they like. Each game task can be represented in the form of a crossword puzzle, for which there is any amount of time. The presence of in-game time limits changes the usual game dynamics.

The same applies to co-passing - a classic computer quest is a single-player game and the flow chart is often almost linear, when in each period of time you can perform a very limited number of actions that do not require each other to be activated simultaneously for a solution. And no matter how strange it may sound at first glance, but many players do not like multivariance, and even more so random, when in one time period you can perform several key actions at once, setting them the priority on their own. This is especially true for casual gamers. There is a justification for this, but this does not concern the topic of the article.

And here, escape rooms have more in common with games like Fort Boyard and similar entertainment programs. Immediately less noticeable, but important specific points appear immediately.

Difficulty and game endings

Complexity, as in all games, should go on increasing, when the very first puzzle is solved literally immediately when you enter the room. The first tasks should be obvious in order to captivate the audience on the one hand and set the motion vector for the scenario on the other.

When adjusting the complexity of the game for a while, you should not set the task of 100% cross-country ability - participation is more important than winning.
The balance of tasks block is quite voluminous. But here, dealing with the regulation of complexity, it is worth keeping in mind that participation is more important than winning. You need to understand that an escape room is such a form of spending time together, an attraction - people should have fun regardless of at what stage the game ended, the players reached the final goal or not. That is, a loss should not deliver negative emotions. The climax in the game can be spectacular in any case - either the bomb "explodes", or we can neutralize it; either we run away from the room, or a maniac with a chainsaw appears there. All of these endings should cause a wow effect. It is necessary to think over memorable endings for losses, then everyone will be satisfied regardless of the result. In computer games, most often a loss has a clear negative connotation.

The goal is clear and understandable

Players should not be overloaded with a large amount of information before the game. They must understand the purpose of the game. If the game goal itself is to be found during the passage, this should also be clear before entering the room.

Basically they tell an introductory sentence in 2-4 sentences and indicate a clear task - to find and defuse a bomb, find evidence, get out of a maniac trap, etc. Of course, the goal itself can change in the process (they came for evidence, but were trapped), but the introductory one way or another should be very capacious, otherwise the information overload at the beginning of the game can bring down the player when he begins to invent false ones goals due to the fact that something is not understood or heard in the background. It turns out that before the game the background itself is not as important (and in a sense harmful) as a simple goal setting.

Actions, not History

Continuing the paragraph above. The plot twists and turns are fading into the background. The first is action. This strategy was chosen specifically for the first project. To begin with, I would like to go through the cycle of creating the game, working with more obvious game situations, and later we could start experimenting with narrative.

Without extra details

There should not be unnecessary details in the environment that can be interpreted in two ways by the players. Otherwise, there is a high chance that players will begin to create non-existent relationships and give their own meaning to environmental elements that have nothing to do with the script.

All the points above are also related to this. In a computer game, this can be easily solved through the interactivity of various game areas on the screen, but in the real world a player can interact with all the surroundings that can be reached.

Focus on collaborative problem solving and side effects

Since there are several people in the room, it is necessary that they all not sit idle. Some tasks should be made so that their solution requires cooperation. About parallel tasks, I wrote a little higher.

Of course, as in any group, "alpha" is defined, the authority of which many will obey and will follow the instructions, but it is necessary to make sure that no one gets bored. To do this, you can parallelize some puzzles within a single conditional game step. But at the same time, one cannot allow a large number of simultaneous actions that can create chaos in the game.

Technological solutions

This is what the USP project may be . Mechanical and digital puzzles create the wow effect best (although you can’t forget, for example, about characters who can also be used in the game). They need to focus on first. High-quality implementation of such puzzles will also be a good competitive advantage.

Work on a design document

After the formation of all these considerations, work began on the design documentation of the project.
First, a list of ideas for puzzles and possible simple actions within the given settings was formed. At this time, partners in the states were engaged in a synopsis of the plot. When the first draft of the script appeared, we selected the most appropriate puzzles and actions from the list that better matched the script.

After that, work began on a description of the game sequence - it was necessary to set checkpoints in the form of basic puzzles. So, new material in the game will conveniently be dosed within the framework of these conditional points (for example, gaining access to a new room or to a bedside table where new objects are placed and tips for the next tasks, etc.). Then there will be no chaos when the players become overwhelmed by the simultaneous appearance of a large number of clues and puzzles.

The space between such points can be filled with additional smaller game tasks, the number of which will be conveniently balanced in the future.

These documents are not clear TK, which are written once. The documentation changes during the writing process, while working on rooms and after test games - these are “live” texts (as a result, many of the game moves in the room were quite different from the ones originally described in the document or were replaced with analogues that used game objects, which were already in stock or which were easier to get).

In parallel with these processes, work began on creating a game for Oculus Rift.

Virtual reality as part of a quest room

How can I use virtual reality in stories with escape rooms? You can relate to BP as just one of the types of original puzzles. You should not discount the interest in the technology itself - many people just heard something about virtual reality glasses, and this, of course, is worth using.

But it was interesting for us to go further, the idea was to expand the space of the game in the most literal sense of the word. And at the level of gameplay, and at the level of storytelling. Due to this, you can greatly diversify the entire game process, make it more saturated. Make a kind of game in the game, where you can also build an interesting system of relationships between BP and the real room, when actions in real reality will affect the virtual one and vice versa.

Our partners were initially interested in the combination of Oculus Rift and Leap Motion, when the hand sensor is mounted directly on the glasses.

But it was strategically important for us to make the story with virtual reality more memorable to the players. It is about creating a powerful wow effect from the use of the bunch of glasses with a hand movement sensor, from the plot twist that is used in the game with the advent of these devices, and from the puzzles in VR as a whole. This was necessary not only as part of the successful launch of only one room. If the effect turns out to be powerful, then this proves that interactive puzzles can and should be used in quests in reality, making them the center elements in the game.

This is what related to business tasks. Speaking specifically about the game, the following points were emphasized.

The interaction of reality and virtuality

It was necessary for virtual reality in one form or another to intersect with the real room and the game tasks in it. It was decided to create, on the one hand, mediated gameplay in BP (but well-grounded in the scenario), and on the other hand, use its results as a hint to the puzzle in reality. At the same time, a parallel task in a real room can give a hint for solving a puzzle in VR, then in parallel with the player in virtual reality, other players will be able to participate in solving another puzzle.

Stylistic aspects

Both the glasses themselves and the virtual environment must be inscribed in the setting and not read out of the context of the story, but the virtual space itself can create a visual contrast with the real room in which the players are located, making the game more saturated.

Solving Leap Motion Tracking Issues

An interesting point. Those who are familiar with Leap Motion technology are well aware that the work of virtual hands is far from ideal. This is not just about fine motor skills, but also about elementary gestures and in general about the contemplation of virtual hands - they can constantly disappear, flicker, fly, etc. And this is bad - many people may be scared - to think that they have broken something or are doing something wrong. But all this is quite possible to “smooth out”.

The first thing that came to mind was to try to beat the shortcomings of the sensor at the level of narration, because a narrative can absorb fears.

Depending on the setting, everything can be reduced, for example, to a magical ritual or a complex scientific experiment, where each action is clearly stated - you can provide the player with instructions on how to keep your hands in front of the sensor so that everything works as it should. Through texts and some visual clues in the room, we can explain that the puzzle in VR is not an easy test, and to work with the “device” you need willpower and a certain attitude, a person should be focused and fully focused on the task, otherwise “communication” "Will disappear. You need to move your hands carefully and monitor each movement, otherwise it will fail.

Now it turns out that possible problems with the sensor become part of the gaming environment and the player’s task is not just solving the puzzle, but also learning how to use the device so that the puzzle is finally solved.

Second moment. For the sensor to work better, you need to remove unnecessary objects around the person that may interfere with his work. There should be no mirror surfaces and a large number of objects in general. Moreover, the hands of other players, which can be determined by Leap Motion. A great option - a person interacts with the sensor on the background of an empty, flat wall.

To do this, you can fix the chair at the table with Oculus Rift so that it can not be rotated. And in the game, you can position the game elements so that when you play with them in a virtual scene, the player does not turn to other players.

Now directly about the puzzle itself. It was immediately decided that it is best to simplify the gestures that are used in the game. All control elements can also be positioned at a convenient distance from the player, so that they do not need to be pulled in virtual space. If there are any displacements of objects (more about the puzzle mechanism, unfortunately, I can’t tell because of the NDA), then they should occur at short distances so that the player, again, could not lose his hands from the sensor coverage area.

According to the results of testing the puzzle indirectly from playing in a room, 100% of the players solved it.

Test games

Initially, it was decided that only test games at a different age audience will put everything in its place and the game sequence between the control points can either decrease or increase. Some tasks can become simpler or more difficult if the players go through the game for too long or quickly without prompting.

After about a month of work (from the moment we connected to the project), the first test games began. And everything went according to plan at the level of game sequence. Players remembered the story of virtual reality very well. The effect was exactly as we expected - the players even spent game time just to be in BP, put on glasses in turn, played with Leap Motion.

As for the overall game sequence, it actually did not need to be balanced at all.

Game sessions are already in progress in the room with Oculus Rift. The project recently opened a second room. As for our team, there are several ideas regarding the development of the theme with escape rooms and various interactive solutions in them, but more on that in the next article.