Rift Maze 0G -- Oculus Rift zero gravity maze

Community Showcases
1

I’ve made a simple 3D maze that you navigate in zero gravity while watching through the Oculus Rift (right now it ONLY supports Oculus).

Download: Dropbox

Screenshot:

1472712--81083--$riftmaze0g_01.jpg
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*** BE SURE TO READ THE FOLLOWING CONTROL INFO IN ORDER TO SUCCESSFULLY PLAY THE GAME! ***

The controls are somewhat complicated, so I will run them down here:

The left hand controls your movement:

  • W - Forward
  • S - Backward
  • A - Slide left
  • D - Slide right
  • Shift - Up
  • Ctrl - Down
  • X - Stop (hold down and you will eventually come to a complete stop)

The right hand controls your rotation:

  • I - Pitch forward
  • K - Pitch backward
  • J - Turn left
  • L - Turn right
  • U - Roll left
  • O - Roll right
  • , - Stabilize (hold down and your rotation will eventually cease)

Thrust regenerates whenever you’re not using it.

Space Bar drops a beacon (uses 50% of your currently available thrust). Use beacons to help navigate the maze (it’s useful to drop them at the entrance to areas you know are dead ends, so that you don’t accidentally go back down the same path again).

After the map generates, the game will load once you press both W and I at the same time, then release them. This is to help you get your hands in the correct orientation before the game begins. If your hands get out of orientation, the left hand isn’t too hard to get back where it should be, but the right hand can be. Most keyboards will have a little notch sticking out of the J key, so I’ve found it helpful to feel for that.

The goal is to reach a glowing ball at a random part of the maze. It emits a hum, so you know when you’re getting closer to it. Your readout also shows you (in addition to your coordinates) how far you are from it, in meters.

If your oxygen level runs out (takes a VERY long time), you lose. If you reach the glowing ball, you win. Either way, you can press Escape at any time to quit the game.

This is a very slow-paced game, and patience is needed in order to successfully navigate the maze. I would have made it faster, but my experience has been that if you are moving or rotating too fast in zero gravity, it creates a lot of motion sickness in the player. This speed may still carry a little motion sickness for some people, so be warned.

Remember, you’re in zero gravity, so any movement will continue until you apply opposite thrust or use stop/stabilize to slow yourself down. It can be disorienting at first, but when you get the hang of it, you can navigate a lot easier.

I’m not really planning on modifying this much, but if anyone has any suggestions, I will consider it. It’s mostly just to practice getting used to using the Oculus.

2

Don’t mean to bump this, but I really want to see if anyone with an Oculus has tried this out and can give me some feedback.

3

Not had a chance to try it yet but the controls look much more complicated that they need to be. Using 2 hand on the keyboard is a odd decision as I have found it quite easy to loose track of which keys your hands are on if you accidentally take them off the keyboard. Still looking forward to playing.

4

Ok, I played this for a few minutes on my OR. Here are my thoughts:

Pros:

  • I like the slow, deliberate nature of my movements. It does make me feel like an astronaut who has to painstakingly apply just the right amount of thrust to get where I need to
  • The slowness also prevented me from getting the usual nausea that hits me hard when playing fast paced games like that Dragonstrike one
  • I could see the potential of developing this into some kind of survival horror. The black and white monitor, the darkness, the claustrophobic environment, the dreadful feeling of isolation and the almost painfully careful movement could be used to create a tense, foreboding atmosphere. It reminded me a bit of some of the darker and quieter Dead Space Zero G levels.

Cons:

  • The controls are too hard to manage. Perhaps make them a little more user-friendly while keeping that feeling of careful navigation. I agree that fast motion will probably cause nausea so you could probably experiment with increasing forward thrust only first and seeing how that goes.
    I’d increase thrust regeneration, or just try giving the player unlimited thrust.
  • You need some kind of map or 3d compass. I’d get disoriented all the time quite easily. Perhaps you could use something similar to those space-sim games. You could even color code the walls so the player always knows which was is “down” (relatively speaking)
  • The environment eventually felt a little bland. You could experiment with some basic hazards, aliens (used sparingly) to create that feeling of dread

Summary:
Overall I think as an experiment it worked well. There are certain elements which would lend well to a zero-g survival horror. If you can tighten up the controls a bit and add a little more content you could have a real winner! Good work :smile:

5

I agree about the controls, but it’s hard to find a way to put what amounts to a total of twelve directions of movement in the player’s control. What I need to do is see about mapping it to an xbox 360 controller or something, that way you have the two sticks to handle eight of those directions, and the triggers and bumpers to add the other four.

I do realize that the environment is kind of bland. It’s hard to make cubes look inviting to begin with. Maybe with some kind of decoration they’ll be a little more pleasing to the eye, but to be honest I lack skill in graphics. Sound and game design is really more my thing.

A 3D compass that always points “north” might be useful. I could just map it to a sphere and put it somewhere in the HUD in that case.

I thought of adding something scary to the level, but it’s hard enough just to make it to the goal within the time limit…

I really appreciate the feedback!

6

No worries glad to help!

I’m not great with 3D art either, but there was an asset I picked up on special recently called Probuilder that is really easy to use. If you want to do more complex shapes this may be useful too.

Yeah I agree that an xbox controller will most probably make navigation much easier. I would imagine many OR owners will have one as well.

Anyway, good luck with your game - let us know how you get on :smile: