Reboot: Anomaly Holdout

Survive an alien threat by using a mixed-reality control panel to scan rooms, open valves, and shut doors.

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Inspiration

Our project was inspired by immersive control panels constructed for PVKK and other simulator games. The gameplay and setting were an homage to popular horror media such as Alien and Five Nights at Freddy's.

What it does

Reboot is a sci-fi horror experience - the player must survive one minute while an alien hunts them down! What makes our title unique is the controller - rather than using a virtual control panel, we constructed a physical controller that allows for a tactile, immersive experience.

Our interface includes two panels of buttons and LEDs, as well as a large button, rotary encoder, and sliding lever. The panels are used to scan rooms and activate defense barriers. A heat buildup system punishes players for keeping too many systems on for too long. Additionally, the number of inputs to remember as the player attempts to locate and impede the enemy under pressure adds another layer of challenge.

We combined Aruco tracking and mixed-reality passthrough to view the control panel in real time. As a result, the end product is intuitive to use.

Finally, we opted for a run-down, cassette/retro-futuristic aesthetic inspired by similar media we enjoyed.

How we built it

Our design process began with planning: how did we want to generate suspense, what elements the player would interact with, etc. These elements were brainstormed on a chalkboard and then composed into a design document.

All assets for the game were created from scratch in Blender and textured in Substance Painter. UI elements for the in-game computer systems were created in Photoshop and finally the whole thing was put together in Unity.

For the hardware controller we drafted the layout on paper and then designed a modular system of 3D-printed panels to hold the controls. Due to the number of inputs and outputs required, the control panel is powered by two ESP32's working in parallel. The whole unit is housed in a foam core base, matched with a "cutout" model in Unity that allows for the mixed reality compositing in the headset. Our firmware uses multiplex matrices to reduce IO pin usage and a custom WiFi api to send and receive control information to the game.

Challenges we ran into

Overall, this was a very ambitious project that challenged our technical and time management skills. Scope creep was one of our biggest enemies by far. Still, we all had ideas for engaging gameplay. We encountered a variety of time-consuming challenges, including:

  • At the last minute we had to pivot from using the Arduino Uno Q to an esp32 due to limitations we didn't have time to work around, such as no serial monitor over USB support and no PlatformIO build support. Without the serial monitor we were unable to debug our code.
  • Additionally the Arduino Uno Q takes multiple minutes to start up which slowed development with it.
  • Debugging on the Galaxy XR was difficult
  • Game compilation builds would take upwards of 30 minutes
  • Hackathon WiFi was slow (we had to reinstall Windows on one of our PCs due to software incompatiblity on linux).
  • Blender 5.0 had a bug with exporting files to unity (known FBX / Principled BSDF materials bug).
  • The rubber band kept falling off the lever mechanism.
  • 3D print tolerances.
  • We had semantic disagreements about some features, like what the barriers for the alien should be (doors/vents/anomaly repellent).

Accomplishments that we're proud of

(Jack): I was a real jack-of-all-trades in this project, having my fingers in asset creation, sound design, control design, and making the enclosure. I'm really proud of how the control elements I designed came out, as I think the lever and valve are some of the most satisfying parts of the interface. While I only created a few of the assets, I'm glad I got some practice in Blender and am really happy with what I did make.

(Ben): I really liked how the mixed reality compositing came into play. It's hard to describe to someone outside of the headset; it adds a level of immersion that's hard to grasp.

(Smeev): This project and the hackathon really pushed the limits of my creative output. What would've typically taken weeks for me to create, I made in two days. Virtual environment creation was entirely new to me; I had only created two character models up until this point. I was only somewhat familiar with Substance Painter (a 3D texturing program) at the start of the project, but had to quickly adapt to it in order to keep up with the extreme workload.

(Denis): I'm proud of how well we worked together as a team and how much we got done. I was able to do all of the hardware on my own, from two layers of multiplexed LEDs and buttons, running out of IO pins and using a second microcontroller in parallel, to even helping with the Unity project programming.

(DJ): I’m proud of the phenomenal teamwork and my implementation of the communication between the panel and game, and my testing tools that helped us test panel controls via a simulator while the real one was being built. I also am proud of my modular architecture, which helped us to be versatile.

What we learned

Number one: Linux cannot build for the Android XR and lacks robust CAD software. Secondly, while Android XR supports ArUco tracking, the support for QR code tracking isn't as developed the Meta Quest 3, for example. On a broader scale, it's important everyone is on the same page with regard to what the end goal is, as we encountered some issues late in development when it came to slight differences between the vision we had for the final product. Spending more time on the initial design document to pinpoint our goals could have saved us precious time in the long run.

What's next for Reboot: Anomaly Holdout

If we had more time, we would have developed a more robust audio system, which we believe is a big immersion factor in VR horror. Voice acting is fun too!

We would also like to add a larger map, more concurrent enemies, and more systems to play with.

This concept could offer VR arcades an interesting direction to stay relevant in an age of ever-cheaper consumer hardware.

Alternatively, we believe the core gameplay is compelling enough to stand alone as a full game, even if it doesnt have the physical interface.

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