Back to Projects
VR/Game Dev

Haunted House VR Survival (SIT283)

A polished Unity + Oculus VR demo slice with comfort-first locomotion, deterministic monster AI, cinematic atmosphere, and production-style presentation assets.

VR/Game Dev6 technologiesMar 2026
Haunted House VR Survival (SIT283) cover image
Category
VR/Game Dev
Tech Stack
6 items
Released
Mar 2026

Visual Highlights

Primary hero frame used in the demo narrative: a claustrophobic corridor with directional tension.
Alternate moodboard frame used to validate lighting contrast and visual readability in low-light scenes.
In-engine gameplay capture from the polished demo build with finalized encounter pacing.
High-fidelity in-engine capture that showcases the final atmosphere and combat readability.

Haunted House VR Survival - Demo Showcase

Demo Context

Haunted House VR Survival is a complete horror vertical slice built for SIT283, then refined into a portfolio-grade demo. The objective was to combine fear, clarity, and comfort in one playable loop: explore, react, survive, reset, and replay.

Primary corridor mood frame for demo context
Context frame: the visual target for the full demo tone—tight visibility, directional light, and controlled tension.

Experience Goals

  • Keep movement comfortable under pressure.
  • Make threats readable without overexposing the scene.
  • Deliver deterministic monster behavior that can be tuned and tested.
  • Keep replay friction low for fast iteration and demo runs.
Contrast and route readability concept
Design intent: readability-first darkness, where players can orient quickly without losing atmosphere.

Locomotion and Interaction Foundation

Movement was redesigned around snap turning and collision-safe translation after early discomfort findings. Gun and torch remain available throughout the run to avoid dead moments where the player loses agency.

VR locomotion and interaction setup
Controller mapping and interaction setup used in shipping demo builds.
Unity project structure and systems organization
Project structure that separated XR input, combat, AI, and scene logic for faster iteration.

Monster AI and Threat Orchestration

The enemy uses a deterministic FSM: Idle → Patrol → Chase → Attack → Death. Transition gates are tied to visibility, distance, and event triggers, which keeps behavior debuggable and consistent across playtests.

Finite-state machine for monster AI
FSM architecture used to tune aggression without introducing random spikes.
AI navigation and movement validation
NavMesh and movement validation pass that removed pathing stalls and dead-zone behavior.

Scene Direction and Gameplay Staging

Environment composition focused on guiding player decisions with light, silhouette, and sound instead of UI-heavy prompts. This kept the demo immersive while preserving gameplay clarity.

Environmental storytelling direction
Storytelling reference used to shape silhouette readability and emotional pacing.
Encounter-space composition and tuning
Scene composition pass for encounter routing, interaction spacing, and threat reveal timing.
In-engine gameplay checkpoint
In-engine checkpoint showing final interaction flow under active threat pressure.

Atmospheric Control and Performance

Atmosphere effects were constrained to high-impact windows rather than running continuously. This preserved frame stability while maintaining horror intensity.

Threat-forward mood exploration
Threat-forward mood reference used to tune pacing between calm exploration and chase escalation.
Readability and feedback checkpoint
Readability pass focused on feedback clarity in low-light and high-stress moments.
Performance and systems validation snapshot
Systems validation snapshot used to confirm stable frame-time behavior after optimization passes.

Final Demo Frame

The final build demonstrates a cohesive VR survival loop with comfort-aware movement, predictable AI pressure, and cinematic scene design that still supports gameplay clarity.

Final high-fidelity in-engine demo frame
Final showcase frame from the production-style demo presentation.