Escape The Matrix

Agent Smith is on his way; Neo and Morbius must work together to escape! Solve interesting puzzles with an asymmetrical cooperation aspect.

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Inspiration

Most of our team had game dev experience, and Shanna in particular had XR experience, which all helped shape the direction of our brainstorming, and ultimately the creation of our game idea. Though we began with brainstorming ideas for each of the three topics, we quickly realized that we were most interested in this particular game idea, which then became Escape The Matrix!

What it does

Our game is actually two games, intended to be played in parallel. On the VR side, you play as Neo and must Escape The Matrix. However, you do not have all the information necessary to escape, which is why you need the help of the second player, who plays as Morpheus, and can decipher the clues that Neo finds. But, you must communicate efficiently, or else you may run out of time!

How we built it

Since there was so much to do, we split up and each began working on the parts that we would be most comfortable working on. Tung started writing C++, Aaron wrote a server in Rust, Shanna began fiddling with the VR/AR headsets, and James started composing the soundtrack. Then, towards the end of the 24 hours, we had to work together to integrate all of our systems together.

Challenges we ran into

Throughout working on this project, we did run into some hurdles. Particularly, it turns out that VR headsets are quite difficult to develop for, so there was quite a bit of work that went into getting that whole side up and running. We also chose to write the terminal side of the game in a different language than the server, which ended up creating some nasty connection bugs that we had to sort out.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Personally, I'm a big fan of our game idea, and I think there's definitely more to explore if we had more time. Also, I think the fact that we got the XR aspect working is pretty unique. But, overall, we all learned a lot in the process of making this project, and that's what we're most proud about!

What we learned

We learned a lot about how to interconnect separate systems, making them work together in an interesting way. We also learned a lot about really weird and specific Rust/C++ bugs! haha. Also, I (James) had never used Unity before, so I've gained some experience not only working with Unity, but I also got to practice the art of learning new things, which is invaluable in life.

What's next for Escape The Matrix

Due to the tight deadline, we only got a chance to include a single level, but if we had more time we would have included more than one (since we actually designed more!) I think there's a lot of room for interesting puzzle design, exploiting the unique dynamic between the asymmetric partners.

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