[S16] - SJ RailQuest

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  Your VR controller becomes your magnifying glass—scanning for clues like fingerprints, footprints, and other evidence left behind.

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  Look for objects you can pick up, inspect, and interact with. Every detail might be a clue, leading you deeper into the mystery.

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  Listen carefully to the environment—because in this world, knowledge is power, and every word could change the game.

Inspiration

The train industry has major challenges and is undergoing a transformation to become more modern and meet the future expectations of what it means to travel. For trains to attract more travellers to choose a more sustainable way of travelling it needs to compete not only in sustainability, but also with the experience. I.e cars no longer compete only as a means of transport but also with the experience that the car offers during the journey. So. how can we add value to long journeys and entertain travellers who choose to travel by train instead of airplane or cars?

We believe that there is no better way to be entertained than enter a game of mixed reality where you have to find clues to solve mysteries.

What it does

In this mixed reality experience, you will uncover the secrets hidden on a night train. To solve this mystery, you'll need to rely on your instincts, keen eyes, and sharp ears. Your VR controller becomes your magnifying glass—scanning for clues like fingerprints, footprints, and other evidence left behind. Look for objects you can pick up, inspect, and interact with. Every detail might be a clue, leading you deeper into the mystery. And don't just use your eyes. Eavesdrop on conversations, listen carefully to the environment—because in this world, knowledge is power, and every word could change the game. As the train is moving towards your destination, so is your time to solve the quest.

How we built it

• We used Unity and added the Meta Quest SDK, and used the building blocks as a starting point for our game interactions (pinch, grab, poke, and controllers). We used UI Canvas for our in game HUD.
• Custom shaders were used for some effects such as the fingerprint scanning.

Challenges we ran into

• When it comes to development, everything always takes more time than planned.
  
• The physical space (a train) is fixed and we had to take the environment in consideration, both technical but also to make the story fit.
• Developing for Meta Quest with Mac computers

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• We managed to get access to a real train, making it possible for us to test the concept and write code in the correct environment of the game. A key to understand the limitations and what's possible in reality. A big thank you to Anna Swartling and SJ for helping us with that!
• The idea, we really believe that this concept is good and that it works well with challenges presented by SJ
• The teamwork, we had never worked together before but had lots of fun together while trying to solve different challenges on the way

What we learned

We learned about MetaXR-SDK, evolvement in Unity, MetaQuest in general and to work with new team members.

What's next for [S16] SJ RailQuest

• Fine tune the script and complete the full story of the mystery, with all scens, that fits the destination and time constraints of the specific journey.
  
• Add a feature to scan the train ticket to automatically import information about departure, arrival (station and time) and traffic disruptions.
• Adding AI to customize the quest and create a new unique story for every train journey
• Adding AI to help the user solve clues during the game (for example the user finds a clue that is a note in a foreign language and the AI helps the user translate the note)
• Refining the UI and the features

Built With

• c-sharp
• meta
• metasdk
• unity
• winner