Vapor Scape - A Vaporwave Escape Game

NCR Sponsor on Level 3
MLH Sponsor on Level 3
Room 3
Room 2
Room 1

Inspiration

We were inspired by the vaporwave theme of this year's Hackathon. We wanted to create something surreal and felt that an escape room would provide us ample opportunity to incorporate the aesthetic. The layout for our level designs came from iconic spots at the MLC. We had a lot of fun taking well known areas on campus and incorporating them into our project.

What it does

Vapor Scape is a 3-level escape challenge. The player interacts with their surroundings to find clues that help solve puzzles preventing them from leaving a strange, vaporwave themed world. It is designed to have stimulating challenges with built in hints to help anyone who gets stuck along the way.

How we built it

First, we mapped out our project by drawing wireframes on the whiteboard in our study room. After this planning stage, we worked on implementing the programming using HTML, CSS, and Javascript for the interactions. The Live Share function on Visual Studio Code was extremely helpful in letting us collaborate. For the art, we used Aseprite, a pixel art software, to create every piece of art in the game.

Challenges we ran into

First of all, pixel art is HARD! You would think something that looks so simple would be easy to do, but it just means there's less room left for error. Also, Aseprite, the software we used to make our art, had a steep learning curve which we struggled with. Our second challenge was caused by the sheer number of interactive elements we had to include. Each object had to be drawn and placed separately from the backgrounds and had corresponding code that could get quite complex. Finally, we had trouble deciding between two ideas and did not decide on which to do until 1pm on Saturday. This created a major time crunch and ended up limiting the scope of our project.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Somehow, we managed to complete our project in less than 24 hours (Never again). This was a huge undertaking for us and we are very proud to have created a finished product.

What we learned

Art skills! The Aseprite software is a really useful tool to know for making pixelated content. We were able to really learn the interface by working with it so much. Programming-wise, we learned a lot about Javascript. We did more with it than ever before since most of us have only just now started being introduced to it in class.

What's next for Vapor Scape - A Vaporwave Escape Game

We would like to go back and redo much of the art to fit a more cohesive style that reflects the vaporwave aesthetic better. Since we had a vast amount of coding to do, we ended up having to rush the artistic aspects. Also, we would like to create more levels to escape from. Originally, we wanted to have 4 levels - one for each floor of the MLC. Unfortunately we had to decrease our scope, but one day we will come back to it!