Goals and Motivation

The concept behind our project, Hedged-In, was to create a creepy yet fun experience for players, focusing heavily on the communication and collaboration between the two players. One player navigates a maze in virtual reality, while the other observes from a top-down view. The top-view player's main role is to guide the VR player to the exit, and helping them avoid life-threatening monsters. They can also move certain parts of the maze, and distract the monster so that it does not chase the player. Our goal with *Hedged-In* was to design a game that's both eerie and enjoyable, creating a fully collaborative experience for both players.

Interaction

Hedged-In features two primary forms of interaction. The VR player, equipped with Meta Quest 2, is fully immersed in the maze, while the second player views the maze from above, using a desktop mouse to assist. The VR player moves within the maze by lifting and lowering their arms, mimicking one's arm movement when running, while seated on a revolving chair; turning their body on the chair rotates their in-game perspective. The faster they move their arms, the faster they advance through the maze. The second player utilizes the classic keyboard and mouse to interact with the game.

Graphics

We aimed to create as much of the environment as possible ourselves—from the moon and clouds to the terrain textures, hedge leaves, ambient fog and rain. We also modeled various elements, including collectibles, the monster distraction and the mausoleum which signals the end of the maze. The hedge leaves were made using shell texturing. Ambient fog and rain was made utilizing the Unity particle system, and the moon was added through a procedural skybox, which casts real time shadows upon the environment. An attempt was made at adding volumetric clouds and post processing effects as well, which worked on desktop, but couldn't be integrated properly in VR unfortunately.

Challenges

One of the primary challenges was working with VR, which for us heavily relied on Wi-Fi connectivity. This was because we chose not to build the project onto the VR headset, but to instead connect it to a PC through the Meta air-link feature to be able to utilize the power of the PC, allowing for more resource intensive graphics to be added. When the connection was poor however, gameplay became almost impossible. Additionally, integrating VR in Unity presented issues, as certain features—like post-processing effects, UI buttons and high FPS—no longer functioned smoothly. There were also challenges with colliders and making the monsters' animations fluid within the maze so they move naturally. Finally, creating realistic graphics for the hedge presented its own set of difficulties as the shell texturing technique was not as simple to adjust as was expected.

Related Work

One big inspiration for this project was a previous AGI-project called CoCar from 2016, which is a cooperative driving game where one person is driving in VR and other people are able to help create a path using a Pixelsense screen. We really liked the concept of collaboration where the players have to communicate to help each other progress in the game which became the main purpose in our game design. One thing that we wanted to change from their approach, was to have a bigger sense of urgency, which we have through our timer and the monster in the maze.

We were also inspired by A-Maze from AGI22. The project takes the form of a game where one player has VR goggles and navigates a labyrinth, while the other player helps clear the path using a PC. It features puzzles to be solved, spiders to be fought, and moveable blocks in the labyrinth. One thing that we did differently was that the movement in our game is done by moving the controllers up and down, compared to the approach in A-Maze which uses the joysticks. Using joysticks to propel the VR player can cause cybersickness as it moves the player in an unnatural way. With our more natural movement, it can hopefully reduce cybersickness.

Another source of inspiration was Have Mercy from AGI16. It features a maze environment, where both players use their phone, and one of them uses a VR headset as well. This game is competitive and the non-VR user plays against the VR user by pulling down walls, among other things. Running is done by moving and the phone registering the movement. We like the collaborative aspect more which is why we chose to do it instead of the competitive aspect, because it adds more interest to the interaction by forcing communication. Also, using phones makes the game easy to use for multiple people, but the small view can be very restricting, which is why we think that a big screen is a better approach.

Lessons Learned

Collaborative Teamwork: Working in a team highlighted the value of clear communication, shared responsibilities, and leveraging each member's strengths. Collaboration was essential in overcoming challenges and driving the project forward effectively. It was also essential to have a diverse team with varied skills and interests. For instance, if one team member had a strong interest in UI design they could focus on that area, while other concentrated on different aspects of the project, while avoiding too much overlap.

Handling High-Pressure Technical Issues: Managing unexpected technical issues under tight deadlines taught us the importance of staying calm, troubleshooting methodically, and keeping backup plans ready, such as having two headsets charged ready at hand at all times. Prioritizing tasks also helped us address the most critical issues first, ensuring the project continued moving forward despite setbacks.

Gathering User Feedback: Learning to capture meaningful user feedback emphasized listening actively and creating a comfortable environment for users to share their experiences. Structured surveys and informal conversations both proved valuable in gaining insights and iterating on our work.

Supporting Users with Cybersickness: Helping users experiencing cybersickness required patience and empathy. We learned techniques to make users feel more comfortable, like suggesting breaks and adjusting VR settings to reduce discomfort, while noting symptoms to inform future design choices. One such setting was to allow for free movement of the head, instead of just rotation, thereby giving the player the ability to look around themselves like one does in real life. We recieved feedback that this aided users in not feeling discomfort.

Guiding First-Time VR Users: Assisting new VR users taught me to simplify instructions, guide them step-by-step, and remain available for any questions. We discovered that clear, concise guidance is key to helping users feel confident and enjoy their VR experience.