Escape The Temple

a Mix of Escape the Room and Platformer

Story

A lost king’s soul rose from death. It wants to find its old kingdom and ghost around in the streets at night. Unfortunately, it’s locked in an ancient, mystical temple. Help this poor mummy to escape the dark rooms! But be aware of traps and puzzles installed to protect the remains of the dead monarch…

The player spawns in a crypt from which he must first free himself. Corridors with obstacles and puzzles must be crossed to get out of the temple. Some of the puzzles require the use of a specific tool, e.g. a shovel or pickaxe, which can be found in the environment. The game ends when the player reaches the exit to the surface.

Project Details

Period
Team Size
Platform
Game Engine
3D Graphics
Other Tools
Version Control System

12/2021 – 03/2022
2
Computer (Win 10)
Unreal Engine (4.27.1) – Blueprints
Blender (2.92.0), Adobe Substance 3D Painter (7.4.1)
GIMP (2.10.24), Audacity, DaVinci Resolve
GitHub

Period: 12/2021 – 03/2022
Team Size: 2
Platform: Computer (Win 10)
Game Engine: Unreal Engine (4.27.1) – Blueprints
3D Graphics: Blender (2.92.0), Adobe Substance 3D Painter (7.4.1)
Other Tools: GIMP (2.10.24), Audacity (3.0.0), DaVinci Resolve
Version Control System: GitHub

Project Description

The game was created in the university course ‚Virtual Reality‘ at LMU Munich, which took place in cooperation with the LRZ (Leibniz Supercomputing Centre) in Munich.

The original goal was to develop a VR game using Unreal Engine, but due to the Corona pandemic, the LRZ’s VR glasses couldn’t be used, which is why all those who didn’t have VR glasses at home developed a normal computer game (like my team). A technical document and the packaged project should be submitted by the deadline.

After the end of the project, I improved the game a bit in my free time (fixed bugs, added sound effects, etc.) to create a nice gaming experience. If you like solving puzzles, you can download the game and walk through the corridors of the ancient temple yourself to find the exit to the surface =)

Gameplay

First person perspective
The player dies when falling down too far and respawns around where he died
Tools in the environment can be picked up with the left/right hand to solve puzzles (however, hands also count as tools, i.e. bare hands are required for some tasks)
Highlighted objects in the environment will indicate if the player can interact – but you need to have the correct (or no) tool in hand to do so

Controls

W/A/S/D
Move mouse
Space
Shift
Q
E
Left mouse button
Right mouse button
ESC

Move
Look around
Jump
Run
Pick up/drop left tool
Pick up/drop right tool
Use left tool
Use right tool
Main Menu

Controls

W/A/S/D: Move
Move mouse: Look around
Space: Jump
Shift: Run
Q: Pick up/drop left tool
E: Pick up/drop right tool
Left mouse button: Use left tool
Right mouse button: Use right tool
ESC: Main Menu

Moodboard

- by Lisa Görtz

Game Screenshots

Level 1

Level 2

Level 2 tools — Selection of tools hanging on the wall

Hidden door in the wall that opens automatically when entering a collision box while crossing the hallway

Level 2 avalanche — Rock avalanche blocking the way

Highlighted stone — Clearing stones out of the way using a shovel

Big Hall — Large underground hall with a temple that holds the last riddle before you get to the exit

Level2 light up brazier — Lighting braziers with a torch to be able to operate a lever

Level2 temple braziers — Alley of ignited braziers to the scret temple

Level2 lever — Operating a lever after all braziers are lit

Level2 temple stairs — Secret stairs raised from the ground

Level2 temple front — Stairs to the temple

Interactable rock — Destroying a rock with the pickaxe to find the enclosed pentagram

Level2 temple side shot — Heading to the temple with the found pentagram

Main Menu

MainMenu Credits Developer — Credits Developer

MainMenu Credits Assets — Scrolling credits for the assets used

What I did

Because of prior project experience, I handled the Unreal Engine project setup, managed GitHub versioning and built the project in the end to have a standalone application.

For the core functionality of the player character, I was responsible for:
– Collision detection and handling (checking objects in front of player and highlighting of interactable objects)
– Player interactions (e.g. pick up/drop tools, interaction with different objects in the environment)
– Supported in implementing the player animation blueprint (Event Graph, State Machine) and adjusting pre-made character animations for holding tools in the hands.
– UI: Showing the player tools at the bottom of the screen (with highlighting functionality when the tool can interact with nearby objects).

Further, I implemented several animated ‚actors‘ that served as puzzles or obstacles in the game (e.g. different door systems, pressure plate, moving tomb lid, rock avalanche etc.) or were just a nice feature like a chest with opening animation and sound.

And I contributed a lot to the game environment:
– Level design (level 1 + improvements of level 2 of my team partner)
– Responsible for all 3D objects in the game (creating 3D models, importing freely available assets, and optimizing and adjusting materials)
– Integrate lighting (ambient light, point lights of candles etc.)
– SFX (implementing sounds of interactions with objects (e.g. hammer blow on metal fence), moving objects (e.g. sliding stone/metal doors), ambient sound (e.g. wind noises) etc.

Last but not least, I added credits to the Main Menu (copyright notice of used assets).

–> so in the end quite a lot – a classical ‚team‘ project ;)