Overview
Time Heist is a single player VR game where players travel back in time and enter a pyramid to collect valuable artefacts. After entering, the pyramid collapses and the player has three minutes to collect as much as possible before escaping.
The project was developed by a team of six over six weeks. We met weekly to review progress, discuss blockers, improve scripts and decide what needed to be completed next.
My Contribution
- Worked on interactable artefacts and collectible objects.
- Used Unity XR components to make objects grabbable in VR.
- Created object data using Scriptable Objects.
- Implemented fall damage and value reduction for artefacts.
- Added audio and visual feedback for object damage.
- Tested object behaviour directly on VR headsets.
Production Process
Our team used weekly meetings to divide tasks, review progress and solve development issues. This helped us keep the project moving within a short prototype cycle and improved how we communicated across design and programming roles.
My development work focused on making artefacts feel physical and readable in VR. Each object needed clear interaction rules, value data and damage behaviour so the player understood the risk of dropping or throwing items.
Technical Breakdown
I started with placeholder cube prefabs using Rigidbody, Box Collider and XR Grab Interactable components. This allowed me to test interaction quickly before final art assets were ready.
I then used Scriptable Objects to store shared item data such as object name, mass, value, damage audio, safe fall velocity and damage multipliers. This made it easier to create multiple artefacts without rewriting the same code for every object.
Challenges
One challenge was making object damage feel fair. Artefacts needed to lose value when dropped too hard, but not punish the player for every small movement. I solved this by comparing impact velocity against a safe fall threshold before applying damage.
This project improved my confidence with VR interaction, object data structures, physics behaviour and working inside a small development team.
Development Highlights
