Space Escape

Overview#

Team	Duration	Stack
3	Aug 2025 ~ Dec 2025	Unity 2022.3 LTS, XR Interaction Toolkit, C#

A VR escape room where the only tool you're given is a keyboard: every puzzle is solved by typing real Python-flavored code into an in-world terminal. You wake up on a malfunctioning spaceship with a chatty alien companion, and have to print, if, and for-loop your way through five systems before the ship — or the alien — runs out of patience.

The Puzzle Progression#

Each stage of the escape maps to one programming concept, evaluated by matching against the code actually typed into the terminal:

• Power On — type print("Hello World!") to log in and bring the ship's lights back online
• Oxygen Fix — write a conditional (if oxygen < 18 / > 21) to catch the ship's oxygen mix drifting out of a safe range
• Dock Release — a for ... in range(5): or while loop calling release_bolt() to cycle through the docking clamps
• Fly Away — call navigate() with a destination (Earth, Mars, or Jupiter) to set the ship's course
• Escape — brute-force the exit door's code with a for i in range(10000): unlock(...) loop, since guessing one number at a time won't cut it

The checker (CodeEvaluator) doesn't run the code — it's a lightweight parser (MiniPythonParser) that validates brackets and required keywords per stage, then pattern-matches the input against what that puzzle expects. Good enough for a game, and it means the "interpreter" never has to sandbox arbitrary code execution.

An In-VR Keyboard That Behaves Like One#

Typing in VR is normally miserable, so the terminal is built around MRTK's non-native keyboard rather than the OS keyboard: selecting the TMP_InputField pops the keyboard automatically and keeps it synced, a mirrored display echoes keystrokes onto the ship's monitor prop in real time, and a dedicated newline handler and Send button (with haptic feedback on press) round out the loop of "type code → hit send → see the result."

The Alien Companion#

A Rigidbody-driven alien follows the player around the cabin — turning to face them, closing distance when they wander off, and reacting (with sound and a controller haptic pulse) if bumped into. Its dialogue is driven by a small speech-bubble system (DialogueManager) that a StepManager state machine cues at each stage transition, so the alien narrates the story beat for beat instead of the escape room being puzzles in a vacuum.

VR Comfort & Interaction#

• Built on XR Interaction Toolkit's action-based input, with snap-turn and continuous-turn both wired up and switchable from an in-game options menu (persisted via PlayerPrefs)
• Grab-and-throw physics interactions, a scene-transition fade, and a contextual hint system that pops instructions when the player lingers near a terminal
• Ships with XR Device Simulator support, so the whole escape room is playable — and testable — with just a mouse and keyboard, no headset required
• Built and tested standalone on an Android-based VR headset

Team#

A three-person project — level design, dialogue, and the puzzle/keyboard systems were split and merged stage by stage, escape-room-style, right down to the commit log ("merge two keyboard files", "Merge Sungwoo's Dialogue").