A talk from the Consumer Track at AWE USA 2017 - the largest conference for AR+VR in Santa Clara, California May 31- June 2, 2017. Steve Dann (Amplified Robot): Escape Room VR Tick Tock Unlock, the story behind the creation of a multiplayer VR escape room experience. http://AugmentedWorldExpo.com

1. steve.dann@amplifiedrobot.com @VR2AR
Founder & CEO - Amplified Robot
Co-Founder & CEO - Medical Realities
President - London Chapter VR/AR
Association
Steve Dann

2. steve.dann@amplifiedrobot.com @VR2AR
ESCAPE ROOM VR

3. steve.dann@amplifiedrobot.com @VR2AR
VR/AR APPLICATIONS

4. THE HEIST
VR DESIGN DOCUMENT
NOVEMBER 2016
LEEDS - LIVERPOOL - LONDON - GLASGOW - MANCHESTER
PRESENTS
©Amplified Robot

5. INTRODUCTION
THIS DESIGN DOCUMENT...
...has been created to offer a comprehensive treatment for a
VR escape room experience. It will cover all creative and tech-
nical aspects of the project.
The VR escape room (working title ‘The Heist’), will ultimately
exist as part of an integrated, out-of-home, experience creat-
ed by Tick Tock Unlock - a UK based locked-room creator.
We will first outline the overarching story to contextualise the
VR experience. This will be followed by a detailed breakdown
of the play mechanics. Finally, we will describe the technology
required.
E N S O - N O E T I C S
e n e r g y a n d b i o c h e m
©Amplified Robot

6. USER JOURNEY
STORY
On the 1st of January 2050, The Energy Solutions Corporation (ENSO) launched the deep space Noetic probe from the Kennedy Space Centre.
Their mission was to locate a planet with a human habitable atmosphere.
By 2099, after decades of ignoring warnings about global warming and antibiotic-resistant superbugs, humanity faced the brink of extinction. We
had exhausted our supply of fossil fuels, uncontrolled CO2 emissions created a turbulent atmosphere, and disease was rampant.
The planet’s top scientists, doctors, and engineers came together in hope of finding a solution - they all failed.
As humanity unravelled, a researcher at ENSO noticed a data anomaly coming from the Noetic probe. A planet the size of Earth emitting energy
100 times more powerful than our own sun. The researcher named the discovery SOL-utio. ENSO launched a human expedition to SOL-utio and
what they discovered changed everything.
The planet was formed of a crystalline structure. The energy from a SOL-utio crystal was found to be a powerful fuel and a healing agent for or-
ganic matter. Humanity was saved.
The year is 2120.
ENSO - NOETICS has colonised SOL-utio and uses its monopoly powers on SOL-utio energy to exert absolute control over Earth’s inhabitants.
YOUR MISSION
You and your team must break into the main ENSO mining facility and return with enough SOL-utio energy to mount an offensive against ENSO -
NOETICS freeing humanity from corporate rule.
©Amplified Robot

7. INTRODUCTION
THE HEIST...
The experience will follow the participants on their journey to liberate
energy, which is being hoarded and unfairly monopolised by an evil cor-
poration.
Set in a classic Sci-Fi dystopian world, the 3D environment will be both
stunning and familiar, playing off of existing science fiction tropes. Out-
side of the digital experience, the participants will have to navigate their
way through the corporation’s security in order to penetrate the mine-
shaft.
Once the real world themed puzzle room(s) have been navigated the
participants are then presented with a room consisting of a central
pedestal around which 4-6 HTC Vive headsets are placed (tethered to a
ceiling mounted rig). The pedestal with the headsets is surrounded by
a railing on a hexagonal platform. Alongside the headset, there is also
a HTC Vive controller, which the participant will use to interact with the
digital environment.
Once a participant is in the headset they are presented with a digital
reconstruction of the room and they will notice the controller they were
holding is now a futuristic styled, gun shaped device.
Initially, the room will appear the same but once all users are inside the
headsets, the world will begin to change. The pedestal that held the
headset and controllers will animate into an energy field container with
screen displays. And the players will be prompted to ‘activate the lift’.
Once the lift is activated, the ceiling will open up and the player will
start their journey through the mineshaft, collecting energy at each level
they pass before, finally, having to fight off drones who attempt to steal
the hard earned energy.
©Amplified Robot

8. CONCEPT
MOODBOARD
This page is dedicated to the best pieces of reference material from
other franchises and existing media from which we drew inspiration for
our development of this experience.
Call of DutyL drone attack
IRON MAN: FLOATING SCREEN/HEADS UP DISPLAY MIRRORS EDGE: ENIVRONMENT AND ASETHETIC
HALO: WEAPON
MISC GAME: ENVIRONMENT
PORTAL: ENVIRONMENT AND AESTHETIC
©Amplified Robot

9. CONCEPT
The Environment
The environment will hold many of the of the recognisable hallmarks of Sci-
Fi environments as used in other video games and media. We will design
with a particular acknowledgement of the dystopian trope you see used in
films and games such as Mirror’s Edge and The Hunger Games while aiming
to maintain a vibrancy that will entertain and astound participants.
©Amplified Robot

10. CONCEPT
GUN 1
MODIFIER:
Increased Energy Drain Speed
GUN 2
MODIFIER:
Increased Damage Ability
GUN 3
MODIFIER:
Balanced Stats
GUN 4
MODIFIER:
Increased Discharge Speed
The Weapons
We will call them weapons for simplicities sake, but these are more multi-purpose devices. The participants will use the weapons to overcome sev-
eral hurdles over the course of their Virtual Reality journey. Within the experience there will be four possible variations on the weapons, which one
the participants use within the virtual environment will be decided by their actions in the real world portion of the game (through puzzles to deter-
mine which weapon they want to bring with them).
©Amplified Robot

11. BLUEPRINTS
During the real-world puzzle, solving section of the experience players will discover blueprints.
Finding blueprints will unlock the weapons for use in the VR section of the experience.
Each weapon has its own modifier that changes how it interacts with the VR environment. Please see ‘Energy Liberation’’ for more details.
CONCEPT
©Amplified Robot

12. USER JOURNEY
FLOWCHART
The following is a simple flow chart showing
the proposed order of interaction within the ex-
perience. Unlike with a traditional video game,
there is no win/lose states . As such this is a
much more linear flow of activity than normal
as if/or statement loops do not apply. The
reward of the outcome for the participants is
purely based upon the final points score re-
corded and time consideration.
RED
Denotes score based behind the scenes activity
White
Represents an action taken by the player in game
REALWORLDPUZZLENUMBER(?)
PlayersPutonHTCVIVEHEADSETSAnd
takeControllers PlayersMustCo-Operatetoactivate
theLiftbycompletingateambased
puzzle
DIGITALACTIVITY1: THELIFT
THEPARTICIPANTSMUSTTHENALL
TOGETHERFIGHTOFFANATTACKFROMA
NUMBEROFDRONESWHOFLYINTOSTEAL
TREASUREFORMTHECENTRALPEDESTALS
ENERGYFIELDSTORAGE
DIGITALACTIVITY3: THEDRONES
PARTICIPANTSINDIVIDUALLYCOLLECTAS
MUCHTREASUREFROMEACHLEVELTHE
LIFTPASSESASITRISESTOTHESURFACE.
DIGITALACTIVITY2: THETREASURE
PARTICIPANTSmust selectonefrom
severalblueprintsforweapons,
notknowingthatitwilleffectthere
efficencyatcollectingtreasure in
theVRexperience
LIFTSTARTSMOVING:
PENUMATICORAIRBASEDMECHANISM
GIVESPARTICIPANTSTHEILLUSIONOFTHE
FLOORMOVING uPWARDS:
EXPERIENCEENDS
POINTSAREGATHEREDBYTHEPLAYER,
THISISVISUALLYREPRESENTEDBYhow
fulltheTREASUREENERGYFIELD
STORAGECHAMBERINTHECENTREOFTHE
LIFT IS.
POINTSAREREMOVEDBYTHEDRONES
UPONSUCCESSFULAPPROACHand
attack OFTHECENTREPEDESTAL
FINALPOINTSARERECORDED
WeaponModifier FromtheBlueprint
suppliedatStep Aisapplied
WeaponModifierisinserted
intothelift
1 2
345
a B
c
d
©Amplified Robot

13. STORYBOARD
USER JOURNEY
©Amplified Robot

14. THE PUZZLE ROOM
Team members will start in a storage bunker outside the main SOL-utio mining shaft. A large metal door blocks access to the main chamber. Solv-
ing a series of puzzles the players will gain access to the mining shaft.
The room should include the following props for world building:
- Blueprints of the mining shaft.
- Blueprints of the ENSO-Guns.
- Shards of SOL-utio Crystal.
USER JOURNEY
©Amplified Robot

15. ACTIVITY 1 : ACTIVATE THE LIFT
The IDEA
The objective is to enable the mine shaft lift. The puzzle requires collaborative problem solving in an asymmetric structure. For the sake of clarity,
this description will assume five players are participating but the concept scales up and down.
©Amplified Robot

16. ACTIVITY 1 : ACTIVATE THE LIFT
MECHANICS
Once in VR, the lift environment and specifically the centre console comes to life with en-
ergy waves and blinking lights. Each member of the team is drawn to the screen embed-
ded in the centre console.
One of the team members sees a row of four empty square slots. Below this row is a
large number of square tiles each depicting a different alien symbol. To make matters
more complicated many of the symbols are different in only very minute ways. The other
four team members will see a single alien symbol. Their job is to accurately describe the
symbol on their console.
Using communication skills the team can only proceed once the correct four symbols have
been selected.
Additional Gameplay Idea
To increase interaction opportunities for the four players who are observing a single symbol
we could add the following modifier:
The screen displaying a single symbol could be exhibiting severe digital artefacts (pixela-
tion / fuzzing / blurring) and is only a fully readable image for a split second.
The player is instructed to click a button during a period where the symbol is most clear
in order to make describing the image possible.
©Amplified Robot

17. ACTIVITY 2: ENERGY LIBERATION
THE IDEA
Having activated the lift, proceed up through each of the levels of the mineshaft collecting energy as you go and storing it in the cen-
tral storage column.
©Amplified Robot

18. ACTIVITY 2: ENERGY LIBERATION
MECHANICS
Once the lift start moving the SOL-utio energy harvesting begins. There are three main components for this game:
THE MINESHAFT
The player is deep at the core of SOL-utio in the main mining facility. There are exposed SOL-utio crystals being drained of their power by ENSO
tech. The crystals are drained into specially designed barrels ready for transport back to Earth.
THE WEAPON
The ENSO-Gun has three modes:
DRAIN: Used to absorb SOL-utio energy. Use the laser pointing system to target a SOL-utio crystal or ENSO barrel to collect SOL-utio energy.
Each gun can only hold so much energy before it must be discharged.
DISCHARGE: discharge mode empties the gun of SOL-utio energy. You can either discharge into surrounding ENSO mining tech to overload it
and reveal more energy harvesting opportunities, or you can discharge into the centre console to keep the energy.
DISCHARGE +: This is a highly concentrated blast of SOL-utio energy with destructive capabilities. Fire a single blast to destroy the walls of the
mineshaft to reveal more SOL-utio crystals. It can also be used to destroy enemy drones.
THE CENTRE CONSOLE
The centre console is fitted with a prismatic-dimensional storage unit. Energy harvested with the ENSO-Gun can be discharged into the centre con-
sole and is your ultimate mission. The centre console will show, given the energy collected, how likely your mission of overthrowing ENSO-Noetic is
of succeeding (ranging from 0% to 100%).
©Amplified Robot

19. ACTIVITY 3: THE ESCAPE
IDEA
As the lift reaches the surface of SOL-utio ENSO will deploy its attack drone force. The attack drones will land on the centre console
to drain your harvested SOL-utio energy in an attempt to prevent your mission from succeeding.
Players must use your ENSO-Guns in DISCHARGE + mode to destroy the waves of attack drones.
©Amplified Robot

20. ACTIVITY 3: THE ESCAPE
THE MECHANICS
The Drone swarm is the last challenge the
participants will have to overcome before
completing the experience and walking away
with their spoils.
The design of the drone is reasonably sim-
ple, based off of drones as they exist in the
real world. The exception being the suction
tube in the centre of the drone, used to pull
treasure out of the top of the Energy Stor-
age Chamber in the Centre of the Pedestal.
©Amplified Robot

21. Mission Complete
Once the drone attack is vanquished an allied craft will appear. Using its tractor beam the entire lift platform will slowly raise from the
surface of SOL-utio and the VR scene will fade to black.
The player is instructed to remove their headset and in the real world, a large screen shows the player’s final score and a comms feed
of SOL-utio under attack from Earth’s allied forces.
EXPERIENCE END
©Amplified Robot

22. OUR TOOLS
Unity 3D (Game Engine)
Unity is a cross-platform game engine developed by Unity Technologies[5] and used to develop video games for PC, consoles, mobile
devices and websites.
Autodesk Maya (Asset Creation Tool)
Autodesk Maya is a 3D computer graphics software that runs on Windows, OS X and Linux, originally developed by Alias Systems Cor-
poration (formerly Alias|Wavefront) and currently owned and developed by Autodesk, Inc. It is used to create interactive 3D applications,
including video games, animated film, TV series, or visual effects.
3DCEPTION (Spatial Audio Plugin)
3Dception for games is a real-time 3D audio and environmental modelling engine. Hear sounds above, below, behind or any point in
space around you over any pair of headphones. Cross-platform, no additional hardware, low latency and blazingly fast.
HTC Vive (VR Headset)
HTC Vive is a virtual reality headset developed by HTC and Valve Corporation, released on 5 April 2016. This headset is designed to
utilise “room scale” technology to turn a room into 3D space via sensors, with the virtual world allowing the user to navigate naturally,
with the ability to walk around and use motion tracked handheld controllers to vividly manipulate objects, interact with precision, com-
municate and experience immersive environments.
High-end Gaming PC
To ensure smooth performance each headset must be driven by a high-end gaming PC. These will be suspended above the player’s
heads ensuring freedom of movement.
TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW
©Amplified Robot

23. LEEDS - LIVERPOOL - LONDON - GLASGOW - MANCHESTER
CREDITS
CTO
MattLeatherbarrow
Lead DeveLoper
Ciaran Carrick
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
James X A Pendry
CGI ARTIST
WiNG CHAN CHENG
DEVELOPER
GRant Stevenscopyright © Amplified Robot 2016
©Amplified Robot

24. steve.dann@amplifiedrobot.com @VR2AR
TICK TOCK UNLOCK

25. Questions?
Twitter - @VR2AR
steve.dann@amplifiedrobot.com @VR2AR
Thank you -

26. Steve Dann
Twitter - @VR2AR
www.thevrara.com
www.medicalrealities.com
www.amplifiedrobot.com
steve.dann@amplifiedrobot.com @VR2AR