Multiplayer VR Maze

This currently untitled project is a Virtual Reality Maze game being designed by my friend and co-developer Zackery Thomas and I. The project was born from the idea of wanting to learn an application for procedural generation and design to then be applied to the virtual reality platform. Zackery and I were in the same Multiplayer Development class and wanted to see if it would be possible to create a virtual reality maze experience that combined procedural generation with multiplayer gameplay. 

This project is currently being designed using Photon for multiplayer and is being designed for two player co-op with an option for independent experiences. For the game the player or players choose an intitial level to playthrough from four current options. That player or that player and their partner get spawned into a procedurally generated maze in which each player is first responsible for finding and gathering their respective orb. These players can speak with each other utilizing voice chat to attempt to help each other. Upon collecting their orb the player must work with their partner to attempt to find each other and the exit to the maze. Once both players place their respective orbs on the pillars a portal opens up for players to play another round where they will again be placed in a procedurally generated maze in one of four different environments.

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This project has been a fun collaboration between Zackery and I as it is an example of a project that gets improved by our differing skillsets. Zackery handled establishing the photon client for the multiplayer backend and more of my focus for the project has been in design areas. I created all the environments for the levels utilizing World Creator. So far this is four environments: A desert biome, an alpine mountain biome, a gothic dark fantasy mountain biome as well as a synthwave inspired neon biome that I created myself. Each of the levels contains original visual effects assets that I created as well as all original audio which i made using either VCV Rack software or recorded myself using one of my many instruments plugged into my computer through my favorite computer amp simulation Neural DSP.

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This experience has allowed me to further improve my skills as a content and level designer as it is a project we have built from the ground up. We hope to show a first prototype of this project at HackFort Boise as well as at our Senior Showcase in April 2023. The project currently leans heavily into the novelty of the virtual reality experience, but we have already began talks on even more exciting ways to gamify the experience through additional gameplay elements such as scoring, time trial based gameplay, implementation of AI or hazards as well as power ups and special abilities. Stay tuned.

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Gameplay showcase SOON: