Metamask: Atmospheric VR Survival & Spatial Audio Combat

Atmospheric VR Wave-Survival & 3D Spatial Audio Mechanics

Developed during Global Game Jam 2026 (Cosenza site) and awarded the "Best Gameplay" Award, Metamask is a fast-paced, atmospheric Virtual Reality survival game built in Unity using C#, OpenXR, and the XR Interaction Toolkit. Players are trapped inside an eerie, pitch-black arena surrounded by an endless swarm of floating cursed masks that relentlessly attempt to latch onto the player's face and spread deadly corruption.

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Core Gameplay & VR Combat Systems

Dual-Wielding Melee Physics & Slicing Feedback

• Haptic Blade Interaction: Players can wield a single sword with focused two-handed precision or dual-wield blades to become a whirlwind of steel, fending off flying enemies with responsive collision detection and VR controller haptics.
• 360-Degree Threat Environment: Dynamic multi-directional enemy pathfinding forcing players to maintain full physical spatial awareness and sharp rotational reflexes.

High-Risk "Perfect Dodge" & Bullet-Time Slow-Motion

• Head-Tracking Dodge Proximity: Programmed a precise VR headset proximity trigger that detects close-call head movements in the final fraction of a second before a mask connects.
• Temporal Distortion (Bullet-Time): Executing a Perfect Dodge slows down game-world time for a crucial window, granting players the tactical advantage to reposition, slice through multiple enemies, and recover.

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Technical Architecture & Engineering Highlights

3D Spatial Audio Threat Localization

• Binaural Directional Audio: Integrated 3D spatialized audio cues (whispers, air displacement, and eerie vocalizations) enabling players to pinpoint off-screen threats purely through sound before they enter the field of view.

Enemy Swarm Variety & Corruption State Machine

• 5 Distinct Mask Archetypes: Engineered behavior logic for 5 different cursed mask types, each with tailored movement velocities, approach trajectories, and audio signatures.
• Cumulative Corruption Threshold: Modeled a state machine tracking face-latch events that incrementally increase the player's corruption meter until reaching the irreversible Game Over threshold.

Arcade Leaderboard & Multi-Level Transition Architecture

• Seamless Scene State Management: Built modular scene transition pipelines ensuring zero-lag state handover between menu lobbies, combat rounds, and game over screens in VR.
• Classic 3-Letter Arcade Scoring: Local save serialization capturing survival timestamps and classic arcade-style 3-letter initials.

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Impact, Award & Team Mentorship

• Winner - "Best Gameplay" Award: Awarded Best Gameplay at Global Game Jam 2026 (Cosenza Site) in recognition of its tight melee combat feel, spatial audio immersion, and high-risk dodge mechanics.
• Multi-Disciplinary Team Coordination: Collaborated within a 7-person team (4 Programmers, 1 3D Artist, 1 Audio Designer, 1 UI Artist) during the 48-hour jam timeframe.
• Architecture & VR Mentorship: Co-led the core codebase architecture and guided novice teammates through Unity VR workflows, Git version control, and XR Interaction Toolkit setup.