Countdown to Chaos

Starting Screen
The Main Room
Explosion Room
Light Room
Chemistry Room

Inspiration

To come up with a project idea that fits "time is running out," we thought of creating a timed escape room game.

What it does

In this timed escape game, a single player solves puzzles in multiple rooms to eventually escape the main room they spawned in. The overall theme is a science lab where the scientists are trapped. The main room has portals to other rooms. Once the player enters a portal, they are locked in the room until they complete their challenge. If they fail to complete challenges in time, "poisonous gas" is released, causing them to go crazy and die. Also, as time runs out, the screen blurs more and more making it more challenging to complete tasks over time.

How we built it

We divided rooms among three people, while the other two focused on other components such as the start and end screens, portals, the timer, and the progress bar. Most of our game comprises imported elements from other Roblox makers, but each room was altered to fit its specific challenge. We scripted all of our challenges, as well as the functionality of the portals, countdown timer and screen blur, start and end screens, and the progress bar.

More specifically, in the explosion room, we wrote scripts for the blackboard to display "explosion" in Greek letters when approached, providing a hint for the room. We scripted the valve to "release gas" and the lighter to ignite the gas, triggering the explosion and revealing the key. Once the key is found, the player can return through the portal to complete tasks in another lab room.

In the chemistry room, we scripted it so that clicking on a particular book, hinted by a message on the blackboard, presents a chemical-related riddle. Clicking on the correct colors on the table reveals the elixir result and the key after a few moments.

In the light room, we scripted a note to open as a screen GUI, a light switch to darken the room, and six text buttons on lockers to appear as surface GUIs when the light is off. Pressing the buttons in the correct order reveals a key, which disappears upon interaction, indicating it has been collected and opening the portal door back to the main room.

Challenges we ran into

We encountered difficulties understanding how to implement GUIs and scripting to achieve the desired output. For the explosion room, to have it function we coded it to be the person has to be in a specific location to trigger the key to show, however, the position is sometimes not accurate leading to the key not functioning. Additionally, we faced issues with portals not closing upon entering a room and only opening once the player obtains the key. Formatting the starting and ending screens proved challenging as they appeared differently on each team member's computer. Despite being a team of five, only four members contributed to the project due to one member's absence for most of the hackathon. We also were unable to finish the progress bar to allow for the game to know if the players did win to display the good ending screen.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud to have functional rooms with interactive puzzles and working portals.

What we learned

We learned everything from navigating Roblox to making objects appear with user interaction and writing code for teleporting users to different locations. None of us had prior experience before this hackathon, and we learned as we progressed. Additionally, we improved our communication skills within the group.

What's next for Countdown to Chaos

We wanted to make the game multiplayer but sometimes there were glitches due to that aspect, so we ended up discarding that idea. We also aimed to add a combat element at the end of the game for players who fail, but due to time constraints, we were unable to implement it. After the hackathon, we plan to incorporate those elements into our game.