Overview / Usage

WhipSlash is a VR action game where you must tear your way through a facility of hostile robots in order to make your escape.

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Features:

• Dual-wield two powerful axes in intense VR combat
• Throw your axes to rip through enemies, or use them to pull enemies closer then bash them away
• Traverse the environment by propelling yourself towards one thrown axe or another
• Power up your axes to unleash a powerful lightning attack that destroys all nearby enemies
• Grab your robotic foes and rip them apart, limb by limb

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The team:

• George Schober - Producer, Lead Programmer
• David Robitaille - AI Programmer, Gameplay Programmer
• Thomas Lyon - Lead Artist
• Jerod D'Epifanio - Gameplay Programmer
• Jacob Harrison - 3D Artist
• Shannon Kowalewski - Texture Artist
• Austin Wilson - Sound Designer
• Nathan Kellman - Level Designer
• Bowen Gao - Level Designer
• Ziyun Chen - Designer
• Jordan Walton - VFX Artist

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Special thanks to Will Johnston, Jeremy Bond, Andrew Dennis, and Brian Winn.

Methodology / Approach

Whipslash is a student game from the Game Design and Development program at Michigan State University.

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The game was initially prototyped by a small portion of the core team in a class called "Building Virtual Worlds." It was then approved for further development as part of a different class - one of the primary courses in the program. The team size grew, and we had the opportunity to fully develop the game over the course of about 8 months.

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We used Scrum production mentalities throughout the lifetime of the project. This included utilizing a tool called a Burndown Chart, where we could track the rate of task completion throughout each sprint to ensure that we would accomplish our goals on time.

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For many of us, this game represents our first time developing in VR. We learned a ton about VR development, as well as how to approach a VR project differently from a standard game. We learned about how to optimize the project to run smoothly on VR headsets. We learned how to cater our gameplay to a VR player, including implementing features that would help prevent motion sickness. Our enemies in the game were designed to arrange themselves in a "Kung-Fu Circle" in front of the player so as to avoid overwhelming them during combat. That way, players never need to worry about a threat coming at them from behind - something that we felt would be disorienting in a VR environment.

Technologies Used

• Unity 3D Game Engine, using the Lightweight Render Pipeline
• HTC Vive, Valve Index
• Visual Studio
• Maya
• Substance Painter
• Substance Designer
• Wwise
• Photoshop
• Trello

Other links

• Gamejolt link