Inspiration
I love the bowling game and due to the unavailability of bowling arena near my area, I was really missing the fun. That is why I had this idea of what if I can use a VR device to convert my room in a blowing arena. Also, I was very particular that the bowling alley had to be adjustable so that it can fit the length of the room to closely give a feeling that its actually there in the room.
What it does
It's a Mixed Reality based 3D bowling game in which you can play the bowling game. In this game, there are a total 10 rounds, in each round you will get two chances to knock out all the pins. Upon game over, you need to enter your name so that the top 10 scores will be listed on the leaderboard.
How we built it
We have used Unity engine with C# as our primary engine for the development. We have also used the Meta's XR SDK to add all the desired mixed reality experience and functionality. Using the Scene API to detect the floor ground and walls and by using passthrough layer system, we were able to place our virtual objects into the real world.
Challenges we ran into
One of the major challenges that we faced was the use of hands to properly pick up the ball and be able to throw it in a natural manner. We had implemented that initially, but the functionality was not working the way desired, so then we took a decision on implementing controller-based controls so as we can track the ball properly and calculate the force at which the ball is thrown.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
It really feels great when what you imagine has actually taken a shape. We are proud of the overall game and engaging experience we were able to build using unity and quest 3.
What we learned
We have learned a lot during the development process of this project. We ran into a lot of challenges and learnt how we can solve them. The samples included in the SDK really does help us to make the key controls of the game.
What's next for Bowling Brawls
Although we have tried to implement the hand controls and still working on it, this will be our major goal to implement natural hand controls so that player can get closer to reality feeling along with that we have already planned to upgrade this local multiplayer version to cloud based multiplier game version where people from different regions can play together online.
How to play the game?
To start playing the game, here are following steps that needs to be done:
- Launch the app
- Create your boundary, its recommended to create a room scale boundary.
- Allow the app to access your spatial room data, if the room is not set up then you will get a prompt to set up the room, follow the process and make sure set the room walls and floor level correctly.
- Once done, you will see the app logo followed by main menu screen. Select "Start Game" button.
- Continue on the instructions screen.
- You will see then the pin hub area following your controller's direction, point your controller in such a way that the pin hub area goes away from you while sticking on the floor. Once you are happy with the distance press "A" button on your controller to confirm the position.
- When the above step is done, the next step is the align the bowling alley as per your desired angle, so here you will see the alley will rotate as per your controller's direction, so move the controller so as the alley will align as per your desired angle and to confirm again press "A".
- The final step of setup is the alley length, once you freeze the alignment above, use the controller's joystick in vertical direction to scale the alley up or down. Once you are happy with the scale press "A" to confirm.
- After that the game starts, enjoy!
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