The Cave Beyond

"The Cave Beyond"(currently in development, started 2022, paused 2023) is a stand-alone interactive Virtual Reality experience that lets the user explore a beautiful, and mystical, cavern. However, not everything is as it seems. With bioluminescent plants, towering stalactites, and creatures scurrying around, there is no shortage of awe-inspiring and captivating visuals. Beware though, there lies mystery and danger in the darkness"

The Technology

“The Cave Beyond” runs on the Oculus Quest 2, Virtual Reality Headset, and was designed on Unity 2020.3.17f1, using assets both I created in Maya 2023.1 and from the unity asset store (credit at the bottom). Lighting was designed by me, using Unity’s Universal Render Pipeline and Unity’s post processing effects. Movement control was achieved through Unity’s OpenXR package and Unity’s Input Action Management. Additional movement, like swimming and jumping was scripted in C#. The AI for the creatures was also scripted with C# using Unity’s NavMesh.

The Narrative

The users will wake up to find themselves trapped in a cave with their memories erased. All they know is that they have the feeling there is something they need to do, and they must exit the cave in order to do so.  The player is presented with two items: a dagger and a staff. They feel as though one is from their forgotten life and the play gets to choose one of them. This choice will determine the players abilities: magic or melee. Throughout the cave there will be bioluminescent plants and mushrooms, as well as creatures. There will be certain parts of the map which users can interact and trigger certain events to happen in the cave. The player will also find items from their old life, bringing back their memories. These items will translate to memory points. If enough memory points are acquired the player will gain abilities: spells for magic users and attacks for melee players.  The main game mechanic is to explore enough to find the memory points necessary to unlock the abilities needed to complete tasks or defeat adversaries.  These tasks will push the player into new "levels" with new memory items and challenges. The goal will be to find the exit, which can only be found through completing the level challenges. 

Memory Items

The memory items will be the primary way the player will gain abilities.  They will be placed randomly around the map. This will give the player incentive to explore the fantastical world around them.  Many of the items will be rather mundane (basic items an adventurer would have); however, hidden among them will be clues about their life, why they're in the caverns, and what they are. When a player find these objects them will count as memory points. These points will trigger certain ability unlocks at a certain number. The first level will have 5: 

Level 1

Level 1 will involve the introduction, picking of abilities, searching for memory items, and the level challenge. For this level the challenge will be to cross the ravine on a draw bridge. When the player first encounters this bridge, they will notice it is being held in its up position by ropes. The player currently has no ability to cut the rope and lower the bridge. Thus the must explore the area and find their memory items hidden around. Once the player has found all 5 memory items, they will unlock their first ability. For magic players they will unlock a fire spell that they can cast at the bridge to burn the ropes and lower the bridge.  For melee players they will unlock the ability to throw their dagger, which they can then use to throw their dagger at the rope and cut it, lowering the bridge.  They will also come into to contact with their first backstory memory items: a letter addressed to the player and a book with pages ripped out. This will give the player more incite into the playable characters backstory and context for the game. 

Outside Contributions

• Flora and Fauna

  • • Purple Sky’s Low Poly Alien World

    • Acorn Bringer’s Simplistic Low Poly Nature Pack

• Terrain

  • • SnowFiend Studios’ LowPoly Rocks Pack

• Water

  • • BitGem’s URP Stylized Water Shader- Proto Series

• Particles

  • • Polygonal Stuff’s Low-Poly Particle Pack

• Audio

  • • Sound Effects from ZapSplat.com