STYLY Link:
https://tinyurl.com/tombOfSwords
Game Concept
I am interested in bringing fantasy questing mechanics into XRMV(XR Music Video) experiences as a way to increase the level of interaction for the player while listening to music. When I watch music videos on PCVR, I can’t help to imagine what else I could do besides watching.
The first thing that came to my mind was a wotagei dance simulation. However, I needed something more, something that’s able to bring different types of fun together. What about questing and fighting monsters? Like many, Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) was a big part of my childhood. The gripping story settings and rewarding quests motivated me to go through dungeons after dungeons in my imaginations. What if this performance is set in a fantasy dungeon? What if wotagei-dancing folks can also slay monsters at the same time? What if the performance doesn’t play automatically? What if the player has to find out how to start the performance by accomplishing certain tasks? I thought the cross-over could be fun so I started to sketch out the virtual world and prototype the interactions. It eventually became the Tomb of Swords.
Tomb of Swords is an interactive music video for one player. Every so often, the skeletal tomb of Chult would open up a portal to a random world and welcome any fierce contenders to challenge the forsaken warriors trapped in the ancient tomb. Many had given the opportunity, but none had managed to come out on top. For a first-time contender, one must find a way to release the enchanted rhythm that reanimates all the dreaded bones. Search the tomb for clues. How much would you defeat?
Tomb of Swords is built entirely in Unity 3D and uploaded to STYLY by me. The main narrative, Tomb of Swords, was originally inspired by one of the STYLY interaction SDK examples. I modeled and animated a few key scene props on my own, and the rest of the assets were modified from those purchased in the Unity3D asset store. The battle song that reanimates the skeleton warriors was made by Daydream Anatomy which is also credited in the description. I also sampled various sound effects from old RPG games that I loved such as Dragon Warrior, Zelda, and Everquest.
8-bit-heroes
Music by Daydream Anatomy
https://daydreamanatomy.bandcamp.com/album/8-bit-heroes
This is a proof of concept and is nowhere near its completion. Besides polishing the current experience, there is more that can be done to push the fun and the sense of immersion to the next level such as co-op, rhythm-battle mechanic, NPC involvement, combos, boss fight, …etc. I sincerely hope this demo shows the possibility that storytelling and interaction can enhance the overall experience of XR music videos to you as much as it did to me.
Feature Set & Walk Through
The experience starts out with a visit from the Frog Lord. In certain Asian folklores, frogs have the ability to speak to people in the dream. The lord is here to greet the player after the portal appeared and gives them their first task. It’s a simple one, the player has to use the 3 black dice on the ground to roll a total of 18.
Once the Frog Lord left the room, the old wooden door that is connected to the tomb will open up with a squeaky sound. The player can see a yellowy ghost on the other side of the door acknowledging the player’s arrival. Because of the built-in teleportation mechanic on PCVR, players can walk through the walls easily. In order to keep the integrity of the experience, the nameless ghost is served as a monitor of the player. If the player skips the Frog Lord’s task, the ghost will notify the player that the sword on the skeleton throne is untouchable because the Frog Lord is still here. If the player finished the task, the ghost will tell the play to pull the sword out of the skeleton king which will trigger the music event.
The last but not least feature is the battle during the music event. All the skeleton warriors can be defeated by 2 or 3 hits with the player’s sword. However, the magic swords that the player picks up from the ground weaken after impact and will eventually shatter. The player has to move around for more swords – one hand or dual wield. If the player equips both hands with swords (dual wielding), he or she will not be able to teleport at the same time because both controlled are taken over by swords.
When the music event is done, the player will see a simple scoreboard. To restart the game, the player has to exit the game and restart it in STYLY.
Look and Feel
As stated in the game concept, I only made a few scene props from scratch because I wasn’t able to find any existing ones I like. The DnD-like campaign book on the floor of the bedroom is one of them. The rest of the assets including the tomb and the bedroom were modified from existing modular kits to fit my aesthetic needs. I am tweaking the light and overall color scheme and try to have everything lighted without using any unlit shaders.
Went back to my first DnD campaign – Thieve’s Challenge for inspiration. When I make the book prop for this experience, I made up an alternative universe version of the DnD logo called Dungeons & Shenron. The word “Shenron” came from the wish-granting dragon in Dragon Ball. I grew up in Asia playing DnD with only 1 friend, none of my peers had any clues of what we were doing at the time. This logo says a lot about what I had dreamt of having as a kid – more DnD in Asia!
Bug Log:
10/24/2020 Swords stop working, fixed. It had to do with adjusting the size of the blade collider the night before.
10/30/2020 Panic, I can’t seem to upload and test, the azcopy times out when I try to upload. When I am not using azcopy, it gives an error, but no red text in the console. I have not changed any setting, tested with different scenes, I am suspecting it has something to do with my connection.
I move the Assets folder to a new project. I found a prefab in the scene that I had previously deleted with a plug by mistake. I am not sure if they directly connected (with the timeout). However, after organizing the asset and added back the prefab to the scene, I was able to upload the scene again.
10/31/2020 In the most unfortunate situation, the die could fall out of the edge of the floor. (fixed)
11/01/2020 Audio Mixer doesn’t work on WebGL, going to try and see if it works on PCVR. It worked in PCVR preview.