Design Case Study
Timewalk
Co-Located Multiplayer VR | Gameplay & Interaction Design
Designing collaborative interactions for players who share both a virtual world and a physical room.
~6 participants together
10+ playtests
2 spaces virtual + physical
Overview
Timewalk is a multiplayer VR narrative experience developed for the Dreamscape Learn free-roam classroom environment. Groups of approximately six people explore together. Each interaction has to work as a game mechanic and as a physical behavior between people occupying the same room.
My Role
I contribute gameplay and interaction design, Unity implementation, multiplayer systems, rapid prototyping, playtesting, iteration, and performance optimization. The experience is a collaborative effort with developers, artists, animators, writers, faculty, and other stakeholders.
Designing for Virtual + Physical Space
A mechanic can make sense on screen and still create a problem in the room. I have to consider where each player is physically standing as well as what they can see and reach in VR.
In the virtual world
- Make interactive objects discoverable.
- Account for player visibility and virtual positions.
- Support group communication and shared understanding.
In the shared room
- Allow spacing for six simultaneous participants.
- Consider accidental physical overlap, safety, and comfort.
- Match interaction gestures to physical affordances.
The design question: can the whole group understand and perform this interaction together, comfortably, in the space they actually occupy?
Controller-Free Interaction
Releasing a grabbed object became a design problem of its own. Dreamscape Learn does not use traditional handheld controllers in the same way as consumer VR, and reliable finger movement input was not available for this interaction.
01 · Problem
Players need a clear way to intentionally let go of an object.
02 · Constraints
The gesture must work with available tracking, avoid accidental activation, and remain distinct from placing an object in the environment. It should make sense without complicated instructions.
03 · Early Prototype & Playtest
A shake-to-release gesture was tested. It proved unreliable and unintuitive, so the interaction needed another approach.
04 · Iteration
One alternative prototype brought the hand toward the chest to intentionally release the object. This explored a more deliberate gesture while raising another question: how well does it remain distinct from ordinary object movement?
Prototype explored; not presented as a confirmed final production solution.
Multiplayer Collaborative Mechanics
My work includes shared multiplayer interactions, player-specific interactive objects, collaborative mechanics requiring multiple participants, player feedback, environmental interactions, and tutorials.
The design considerations connect: what can each participant interact with, how does the group recognize progress, and how do players learn what to do together?
Observe what players actually do
Playtesting & Iteration
The experience has gone through 10+ playtests. Feedback and observed player behavior have informed revisions to interactions, pacing, usability, tutorials, navigation, and multiplayer flow.
The release gesture is one concrete example: an input that seemed plausible in a prototype did not translate into a reliable player action during testing.
Design Process
- Identify Problem
- Explore Solutions
- Prototype
- Playtest
- Analyze
- Iterate
Lessons & Current Status
Timewalk remains in development. Designing an interaction means considering the tracking system, the player’s intent, and the other people in the room together. A working implementation is the beginning of that evaluation; observed play guides the next revision.
Technical Implementation
Unity and C# support prototyping and implementation of the interactions and multiplayer systems. Performance optimization is part of making those systems practical in an immersive experience.