Magic Potion VR DevLog & Post Mortem

Development process:

We first started with a brainstorm discussion on the theme of our game. From there, we decided to make the game in a dungeon environment. After that, we discussed possible gameplays that we could incorporate into a VR space. At first, we were very intrigued by the idea of using voice control to summon objects. Therefore, based on that idea, we decided to make an escape room where the player would face puzzles that require key objects to solve. Then, we started prototyping with one person being in charge of one aspect of the game. For example, one person would look for assets and build the environment of the game, one person would test out the interactions between players and objects and another person could focus on getting the voice control to work. However, through our alpha testing, we received feedback and realized that having voice control to summon objects might create more difficulties than we could handle considering the timeframe of this project. Besides, the element of voice control might serve as a distraction for both the player and us as developers. As a result, we geared towards a more traditional way of gameplay design which involves players looking for key objects within a confined space. Besides the straightforward parts we just mentioned, we also found creative ways to make the puzzles more engaging and interactive. For example, in one of the puzzles in the game, the player would have to play with the most prevalent object in a dungeon, the torch. The player needs to find out the correct pattern of a series of torches and light them up accordingly. By doing that, the player can unlock an area where they can explore and look for objects that are needed for another puzzle. After getting the gameplay to function as expected, we started another round of playtest which informed us about many minor adjustments that could make the game better. Moreover, the playtest gave us many inputs on existing bugs and ways to solve them. For the last stage of this project, we worked on polishing the player experience and internal play testing following rapid debugging. 

Playtesting notes: 

1. Once the ingredient is put in the pot, the name on the list should be checked.
2. Each ingredient in the pot should have different feedback, like sounds or colors.
3. There can be a repository of ingredients, each time we restart the game, the ingredients on the recipe can change randomly.
4. Different levels can have different lengths of recipe. The first level can have 4 ingredients, and the harder ones should have more ingredients
5. When the torch puzzle is solved, there should be feedback that informs me the door is open. It can be a door opening sound.
6. About the raycast, when my hands are up, it’ll show up; when my hands are down, it won’t appear.
7. The gems room can have more instructions, so that the new player can know where to put the gems.
8. The motion sickness issue should be fixed.
9. Spread out the items even more (Make people walk more)
10. Get rid of “Andy’s thing” texture. Replace it with a different one. 

Successes: 

1. We created a consistent environment design and received a lot of positive feedback on it. People also appreciate the humor in the randomness of the objects. 
2. We are able to create a full game loop with working code for pot, ingredients, gems and light puzzles.
3. We are able to address 95% of the feedback we got during playtesting, including the issues with motion sickness, collider and rigidbody problems, and grabbable issues.
4. We worked through many bugs in the process, including earlier build failures and grabbable issues.We also learned to create a good workflow as a team of 4. 
5. We are able to successfully work with VR controllers and use the hand input code to create important effects, such as switching lights and footsteps. 

Failures: 

1. We were not able to add jumping code to the player as it caused some sort of bug to the grabbing. 
2. We have not been able to figure out how to add a lerp. 
3. It was unclear that solving the light puzzle can trigger the door to open. This was addressed with a UI popup in the latest build. 
4. There were minor bugs/collider issues with the pot. It was hard to throw the items into the pot. But this was fixed in the latest build.
5. In the very beginning, we had problems with the speech recognition code. We were not able to incorporate it into the later game experience.
6. The game is currently designed as a one-time experience. We are not able to introduce procedural generated randomness at this point for multiple plays.
7. The exit was originally placed near the stairs. However, since the controller cannot jump and we could not figure out how to place a slide collider on the stairs. As a result, we  have to move the exit to the ground level door. 

Lessons Learned:

From this project, we were able to learn three things. The first thing was how to work with VR. It was the first time for most of us to work on building a game with VR. Connecting the controllers and things about the virtual space on the player scale was new and interesting to think about. Also, we learned to scale down a project. At first, we had the voice input system going. However, since it was only available in windows, we quickly scaled down the idea from calling the ingredients out to a puzzle-solving escape room. This allowed us to finish our project in time. Last but not least, we learned to always test with VR. Even if something seemed like it was working, that was not the case when we built it and tested it in our VR. After going through the whole debugging process on our play test day, we were able to realize that it is crucial to test the game out in VR no matter how small the correction was. 

Next steps: 

Our current game is functioning well, but there is potential to make this even better. For our next step, we could make the game more user-friendly. As we got from the feedback, it would be comfortable and make more sense with the theme of our game to have an inventory system. Also crossing out or eliminating the added ingredients can improve the user experience and add a more magical vibe. Randomizing the list of ingredients and their locations could be something to think about since our current game does not have level systems.