Game Design Document: ”TU Escape”

Monika Srdic, Jana Hoffard, Hendrik Möller

Munich, Bavaria
Open Real Time Games Workshop
GAME DESIGN OVERVIEW DETAILED DESIGN DOCUMENT
You are waking up in a room, which seems strange as it has Summary according to MOZELL, Wil (2015): Simple Game
extra ordinary items and pictures in it. Do these hieroglyphs Design Methodology - The "Core Diagram",
mean something? The only thing you know: Get out!
• Core Mechanic: Grabbing and interacting with objects
Core idea • Secondary Mechanic: Solving Puzzles
Via the HTC Vive, the player is placed in an virtual environ-
ment from which he tries to escape by solving puzzles. The • Progression: Gaining new items and knowledge
player can freely walk around a room, grab items and other- • Narrative: Escape from the room
wise interact with objects. The player must escape in time to
”win”.
Rules
After starting the game, the players attention is directed to a
Key-features timer running down from 25 minutes. When the timer reaches
Following this is a list of all main features creating the USPs zero, the player simply looses and has to restart the game in
(=Unique Selling Points) for this game. order to retry.
The player can freely walk around within the virtual room, When the timer is halfway to zero, all lights shortly shine in
which was built approximately the same size as the play area red lights to give feedback to players.
this game was tested in. Therefore, no other transportation me-
chanics are needed to maneuver throughout this game, leading In order to win the game, the player has to leave the room
to a more immerse experience. through the only door, which is locked in the beginning.
The two HTC Vive Controllers hereby represent the hands of Players will be forced out of object when moving ”into” them
the player in the game. Whenever a hand is nearby an specific with the head-mounted-device.
object, the player can grab the object, making it ”stick” to that Items, that a player is able to grab, react naturally to phy-
hand until releasing it. At other objects, the player can interact sics such as gravity and friction. Other objects are static and
with them, for example typing in a code into a numpad. unmovable.
”TU Escape” is full of riddles. The player has to learn cer- One hand can only grab one item at a time. Both hands cannot
tain mechanics with found hints, which lead to other puzzles. grab the same item at the same time.
Over the course of the game, the player learns to translate
hieroglyphs one by one, which represents the general theme. Mechanics
The player is able to grab different items with the controllers.
Genre Each controller (representing a hand in the game) separately
This game can very simply been put into the ”Escape Room can get hold of up to one item.
Game” category, enhanced with VR functionalities.
Whenever the player would move into an object, the screen
Target player base fades to black and signals the player to move back. This
Our target players are 20 to 29 years old, love to think crea- prevents player seeing through walls and therefore cheating
tively and therefore solve puzzles. They should also not be puzzle mechanics.
pure beginners in the whole ”puzzle” category in order to fully By releasing the ”grab”-Button while swinging the hand, the
enjoy ”TU Escape” . player can throw items around.
All other mechanics are based on the ten puzzles. Figure 4, 2
and figure 3 show sketches about some puzzles:
Start
In the beginning of the game, all regular ceiling-lights are
turned off. The player only sees two glowing red objects: A
cube lying on the ground and one being stuck in a pipe-like
ACM ISBN 978-1-4503-2138-9. object.
DOI: 10.1145/1235
 Figure 1. The layout of the room the game plays in

When the player grabs the cube and places it into the pipe, all Shelf
lights turn on. There is a shelf located in the room. A flower pot is placed
onto the shelf, hiding a scroll inside. A player can grab the pot
and then the scroll to get a hint.

Shaft vibration puzzle

There is a weird-looking desk with a shaft attached on top of
it. The player is unable to look up the shaft, as it is to small
for the players head. When a hand reaches up the shaft, that
controller starts to vibrate the pattern ”short, short, long, long,
short, long, short, long, short”.
With a modified Morse code being written on a note the player
can find at the ceiling, this pattern translates to the numbers
2-6-3.
After entering 2-6-3 into the keypad located next to the shaft,
this puzzle is considered to be solved.
A note with another hint and a plate shaped like a heart falls
out the shaft when solved.

Suit puzzle
The ceiling is higher in one corner of the room. The player
Figure 2. First riddle of the game: A glowing object has to be placed at can see plates shaped like three of the four suits of a playing
the right position to turn on all lights in the room card game: a diamond, club and spade.
When the player throws the plate shaped like a heart up there,
it flicks to a fixed location, marking this puzzle as solved.
It activates all four lasers in the room.

Table
One table leg has a slightly different color than the rest of the
legs. That is the only leg the player can grab. When using the
”interact” Button onto one end of that leg, a note with a hint
falls out.

Figure 4. General thing to be learned over the course of this escape room:
Understanding what certain hieroglyphs mean

Color-code
The player will find multiple colored plates. Some of them
have a hieroglyph on them, some don’t. Through these plates,
the player finds out that a colored plate is always connected
to the third letter of that color. For example, the red plate
stands for a ”d”. Through this system, the player can translate
three hieroglyphs being written on some colored plates. For
example, a yellow plate with a hieroglyph on it means, that
this hieroglyph stands for an ”l”.

Figure 3. There is a table in the game, where one table-leg has a different
colors than the rest. That is the only leg the player can grab. Inside that
leg, there is a new clue

Laser riddle
After activation, four lasers in the colors green, yellow, blue
and red appear throughout the room.
When the player interrupts the yellow and red lasers with the
controllers and/or the head and not one of the rest, the screen
puzzle unlocks and the lasers shut down. There is also another
clue falling on the ground.
Figure 5. One colored plate with a hieroglyph on it (would translate the
symbol to an ”r”)

Frame
Screen puzzle
On the frame, there are four sliders the player can move hori-
zontally. After unlocking this puzzle, the player needs to input a specific
sequence deriving through a left and right button. The Frame-
When aligning the sliders corresponding to the information puzzle gives the solution, it is ”left, right, right, right”. When
given by the picture on the carpet in the room, a note with pushing the buttons in that sequence, the screen shows the
another clue drops to the ground before the player. final hint for the door-puzzle.
Door puzzle keypad and pressing the button might result in the number
Directly to the left of the door, there is an input-desk. On it, being written onto the display of the keypad.
there is a six by six grid-like playing board with a marked
position, representing a figure on that field. With four buttons Other
on the desk, the player can move the figure up, down, left and There is a situation where Vive controllers start their rumble
right. motors to signal specific feedback to the player.
Solving the screen puzzle unlocks a combination of hierog- All other controls consist of the real movement of the player.
lyphs.
AESTHETICS
The games models are low-poly and in 3D. With the ”hard-
edge” and rather colorful, heavy-contrast style, we communi-
cate a science-fiction, abstract environment to the player. With
rather simplistic other graphics and the importance of nearly
every object, ”TU Escape” does not visually distract the player
from the gameplay elements.
Figures 7, 8 and 9 showcases the inspiration for our aesthetics:

Figure 6. What the screen shows after unlocking it

With other clues found within the room, the player can trans-
late the hieroglyphs into N, E, S, W commands, represen-
ting the cardinal directions north, east, south and west. With
the compass found at the shaft, the player can translate the
sequence into a combination of up-, down-, left- and right-
moves.
After inputting the right sequence, the door unlocks and the
player wins the game. Figure 7. Simplistic models with hard edges

TECHNICAL DESIGN DOCUMENT

To play this game, a HTC Vive, two Vive controllers and ap-
proximately three by four meters of free space is required.
There is no need of a computer mouse or keyboard. (except
for starting the game) and has the following technical require-
ments:
• Processor: Intel™ Core™ i5-4590 or AMD FX™ 8350,
equivalent or better
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce™ GTX 1060 or AMD Ra-
deon™ RX 480, equivalent or better
• Memory: 4 GB RAM or more
• Video output: 1x HDMI 1.4 port, or DisplayPort 1.2 or
newer
• USB: 1x USB 2.0 port or newer
• Operating system: Windows™ 7 SP1, Windows™ 8.1 or
later or Windows™ 10

Controls
The player only controls and interacts with the game via the
HTC Vive Controllers and head-mounted device.
The trigger button of an controller is used for the ”Grab”
function. It is used via the ”Hold & Release” principle.
The touch-pad button on the controllers is used for all other
interactions between objects. Pointing onto a number on an
 Figure 11. The table, futuristic chair and one player hand
Figure 8. Colors are standing out

Figure 9. Hard edge coloring

Figure 10 and 11 shows, how these inspiration turned out.

Figure 10. Camera-like shot from the escape room