In just over a week, we conceptualized and built OH, SHIP! A Maze in Space for the 2020 Oculus Start Game Jam. The theme this year was Togetherness: Overcoming Separation and Fostering Connection.
OH SHIP! is a multiplayer cooperative Virtual Reality + 2D video puzzle game, with escape room mechanics and an original story. Through the participation of 2D players over a videocall, the game introduces the necessity for collaboration between the VR player and 2D participants, whose differing in-game perspectives and communication grant advantages to the team.
The game was created in the Unity game engine for Oculus Rift and Oculus Quest, and below is a short trailer featuring our crew:
The spaceship is under lockdown, and our scientist hero, the VR player, is on the wrong side of the ship’s containment, where oxygen levels are dwindling. With the help of their 2D crew members safely residing on the other side of the seal, the VR player must collaboratively navigate the ship’s locked doors and winding corridors to rejoin the crew.
As the journey progresses, the team discovers that the cause of the lockdown threatens not only the VR player’s isolation, but the ship’s occupants as a whole. The VR player and 2D counterparts must work together to solve a series of puzzles, avoid setbacks from the ship’s well-meaning drones, and wrangle the ship’s rescued Moops – an adorable but clumsy space creature, in order to return the ship to proper functioning, deactivate lockdown and enjoy reunion with the crew.
