Entry for 2025 Reality Jam

Trials of the Heart:

You have passed on to the next life, where you stand for judgement. Unfortunately all the tricks and treats I was planning fell short. The puzzle doors didn't activate, the scales didn't move, hieroglyphs didn't animate, so I am posting this project as-is just to honor the game jam. 

The concept is that the player is in between judgement and what is beyond, with death in the rear view mirror. I wanted to create a series of puzzles and moral dilemmas that give the player some chances to see if their soul is lighter than a feather as judged by Anubis. If it is, they may pass on. If not, then they are subjected to infinite torment (or an endless maze of dilemmas). 

Assets Used:

Substance Source base materials: marble_white, ominous_obsidian, ancient_rough_stone, worn_stone_pathway, cracked_stone_tiles, sandstone_beige, hieroglyphic_writing

Adobe 3d free assets: canopic_jar_01, canopic_jar_02. canopic_jar_03, canopic_jar_04, sarcophagus, human_heart_organ_01, ancient_egypt_obelisk_02

Turbosquid: Anubis by Branimir2412

Mixamo: Idle Animation

Freesounds.org audio assets: 29999__thanvannispen__stone_on_stone_impact16, 71469__natharra__blink-4-damped, 586490__szegvari__relax-dark-wind-ambient-background

Fonts used: Bahnshrift, Roboto

Pre-existing blueprint: dissolving text effect, dissolving text material (from an unreleased project 2024)

Software used: Unreal Engine 5.5, VR Template (default project), Blender (building environments, props, animations, rigging meshes, collision data, UV unwrapping), Substance Sampler (conversion of Source materials into tiling image maps), Substance Painter (customizing materials, generating new materials), Fusion 360 (puzzle tile meshes), Adobe Audition (audio editing,  audio effects, audio cleanup, filters), Logic Pro (ambient layered audio compositions), Photoshop (collateral materials, logo, splash page, line drawings for dilemma artworks), Xcode (compiling .cpp & .h for puzzle tiles, puzzle manager, puzzle data assets), Open XR plugin, Metasounds plugin,