MIND-BENDING VR PUZZLES
Spellbound Spire
Spellbound Spire is a room scale VR game featuring physical walking in impossible environments. Solve innovative puzzles with your magical gloves and stop the spreading corruption.
About
Brief: A non-euclidean VR puzzle game that utilizes portals to allow the player to walk inside their playspace to move in the game.
Finished: June 24, 2020
Role: Level Designer
Engine: Unity
Platforms: SteamVR (HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Valve Index)
Team Size: 25
Duration: 20 Weeks
SPELLBOUND SPIRE is an immersive room-scale VR journey where you explore a magical tower being consumed by destructive corruption. Your mission is to find the core and seal it before it’s too late.
Through portals and impossible geometry, the player is able to walk through the entire game in one continuous path while staying safely within the bounds of their playspace, creating a uniquely immersive exploration experience.
Using your magical, gravity-altering gloves, you will have to solve puzzles and traverse hazardous environments to reach the top of the tower, avoiding the all-devouring corruption.
I joined halfway through Spellbound Spire’s development after switching from another project. My responsibilities were to take over from previous level designers, familiarize with the project and its design pillars, and create two levels from start to release. Half of my time on the project took place in the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing the team to adapt to a fully digital work-from-home situation for approximately 3 months.
Walkthrough: Secret Study
Secret Study is a mid-game level that places interactable objects in new scenarios and combining them with portals to create an engaging feeling of exploration and mystery with some simple puzzle elements.
Time Stamps: 11:50 – 14:50
Play Video
Walkthrough: Sinkhole
Sinkhole is a large late-game level that requires the player to retrieve three different keys by solving three individual puzzles, all involving the spreading, destructive corruption.
Time Stamps: 19:37 – 27:55
Play Video
A big thank you to “A Wolf in VR” for his walkthrough of Spellbound Spire!
My Contributions
Sinkhole
Sinkhole was the first level I built for Spellbound Spire. I set out to create a large, late-game level that would challenge the player with solving slightly more complex puzzles. However, the exploration of the level and interacting with the environment was engaging enough, so two out of three puzzles were simplified.
The level’s focal point is a collapsed floor, through which the corruption is creeping into the hall and the surrounding rooms. This focal point can be seen from almost any angle to aid orientation.
Secret Study
Secret Study was the second level I made, and takes place in the early stages of the game. It features unique usage of interactables and portals to achieve a sense of mystery and exploration.
Players walk through a study with secret rooms in pursuit of a key needed to progress. Like Sinkhole, a large open room with recognizable furniture is used as a focal point to help with orientation.
Level Design Documentation
Several documents with information on the two levels have been maintained throughout development. This includes level proposals, contributions to the level design bible, and more.
I was also responsible for the difficulty matrix with atomic parameters, which have contributed to fine-tuning the progression of difficulty between the levels.