Institute of Art Design + Technology
Dún Laoghaire

Kenji Dasal 

 
BSc [Hons] Creative Computing

Hi, I'm Kenji, a fourth-year student of creative computing. I've been a fan of video games my entire life, and have always found enjoyment in game development. I enjoy playing many types of games and create few games in my free time, and have the passion to see what can be improved in the games. I've spent some time learning Unreal Engine 5 and wanted to take the opportunity and challenge to create a game which explore the usage of heartbeat within the game.

Project Description

The project is a Virtual Reality Horror Game with a heartbeat component for a feature. Players must escape the facility by going through puzzle and enemies but they must maintain a steady heartbeat or else the enemies will come for them.

The game was developed using the Unreal Engine as the main editor, utilizing the Blueprints for scripting purposes. The main language used was C++, and it was developed for the Oculus Quest 2 headset onwards. An arduino was utilized for implementing the heartrate sensor through SerialCom as a way to communicate with Unreal Engine.


Senses: Heartbeat

The overall aim of this project was to learn how to implement the functionality of a heartbeat sensor into a horror virtual reality game. To this end a Senses: Heartbeat was developed in virtual reality allowing players to experience horror game with a new mechanic. As a relatively new medium, VR has seen rapid growth in the past decade due to advancements in technologies, ease of use and games.

Creating video games is very accessible with game engines like Unity and Unreal. The development of VR is an engaging challenge due to it being the newest gaming medium. With the game being developed using the Ureal Engine and will be primarily coded Unreal Engine Blueprint system, but the default scripting language for Unreal Engin is C++. An arduino was utilized for implementing the heartrate sensor through SerialCom as a way to communicate with Unreal Engine.