VR / MR / AR

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^{Recording in Progress}

VR Game Prototype

Recording in Progress is a VR game where players experience the duality of modern surveillance systems. As the monitored, they evade cameras; as the monitor, they track targets. Set in a heterotopian world, players confront the endless loop of surveillance: from the monitored to the monitor, and ultimately becoming part of the system itself.

Project Info

Role: Game Designer, UX Designer, Game Developer
Teams: 1
Time Frame: 5 Weeks
Engine: Unity

CORE GAMEPLAY MECHANICS

# Role Switching
Players alternate between two core roles:

The Monitored: First-person perspective, evading cameras by using shadows, obstacles, and strategic movement.
The Monitor: Third-person perspective, controlling surveillance cameras to locate and mark targets.

# Movement and Evasion

Mechanics: As the monitored, players avoid detection by strategically navigating environments filled with surveillance cameras. Cameras’ scanning zones are visualized through light cones, heightening tension.
Controls: Players use hand controllers to move and interact with the environment. Detection triggers warnings, and repeated detections result in failure, requiring a restart.

# Marking Targets

Mechanics: As the monitor, players identify and mark dynamic targets in the environment. Accuracy and efficiency determine success.
Controls: Players manipulate cameras by rotating their perspective and locking onto moving targets. Misidentifications and timeouts can result in failure.

LEVEL DESIGN & PLAYER

STORY & GAMEPLAY

Players enter a surveillance-dominated world through VR technology, progressing through multiple levels of increasing complexity. In each level, players experience a
role transition from "the monitored" to "the monitor." As the monitored, players must complete survival tasks by evading surveillance cameras. As the monitor, players must accurately identify and mark specific targets to fulfill monitoring objectives. Each level employs visual cues and gradually escalating task complexity to enhance the player’s immersion and provide a progressively challenging experience.

Start: Elvetor Lobby

The elevator starts at Level -2 (Underground) and serves as the gateway to various levels. At this stage, players assume the role of the monitored, tasked with evading surveillance. Upon completing the mission on Level -2, players ascend to Level -1 (Underground) and transition into the role of the monitor, taking control of a surveillance camera within the environment. Completing the tasks as the monitor grants access to the next level.

This progression continues across three distinct scenarios. Once players complete all three levels, they qualify to enter Level 4 (Surveillance Office) and ascend to the role of a senior monitor. The elevator’s upward movement symbolizes not only the player’s progression through environments—transitioning from underground to street level, and finally to interior spaces—but also their rise in power, from the monitored to the monitor, and ultimately to a senior monitor. The elevator serves as both a functional and metaphorical device, emphasizing the increasing authority while guiding players through environments teeming with surveillance cameras, both indoors and outdoors.

Elevator

Underground (B2-B1)

Street (G-1F)

Supermarket (2F-3F)

Each level is divided into two distinct phases:

1. Phase One: Survival Test (The Monitored)

Players assume the role of the monitored, navigating through environments filled with surveillance cameras. They must use environmental obstacles and safe zones strategically to evade detection and find their way to the next stage.

2. Phase Two: Monitoring Test (The Monitor)

Players transition to the role of the monitor, taking on the perspective of a surveillance camera. Their task is to scan the scene and mark specific targets. Quick judgment and precise operation are essential to complete the objectives and unlock the next level.

Surveillance Office (F4)

After completing the six tasks across the first three rounds, players pass the trials and are promoted to the rank of Senior Monitor. With this promotion, they gain access to the Surveillance Office, symbolizing the pinnacle of their journey.

In this final stage, players are tasked with overseeing the actions of new applicants through a multi-monitor setup. A desk in front of them features five screens:
The central monitor displays task objectives and system instructions.The four side monitors provide live surveillance feeds of the four key environments: elevator lobby, underground subway, street, and shopping mall.

One of the feeds reveals a new applicant standing in the elevator, awaiting the start of their trial. This visual cues players to their new responsibility: monitoring the very cycle they themselves have just completed. At this moment, the surveillance loop is fully established, highlighting the perpetuity of the system.

End: Monitor

The game concludes with the player seated in the Surveillance Office, staring at the monitors in front of them. As the player decides to exit the game and presses the designated button, the scene begins to shift.

The perspective changes, revealing a similar office setting, but this time the previously immersive environment is displayed on a monitor within a larger space. At the bottom of the screen, bold red text reads: “Recording in Progress.”

This final twist implies that the player’s every action, including their presumed autonomy as a senior monitor, was itself under constant surveillance. The game ends with the chilling realization that the system’s loop extends infinitely, and the player has always been just another cog in the omnipresent surveillance machinery.

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