VR Dexterity Game  •  2015 Kontinuum
M.A. thesis: "Kontinuum – A flow inducing virtual reality dexterity game avoiding simulator sickness"

Kontinuum is a VR rhythm runner game that features flow inducing mechanics and an adaptive difficulty system. It was designed to provide intense gameplay while still enabling a comfortable VR experience with pre-consumer-version headsets like the Oculus Rift DK2.

My role: Concept, Design & Implementation

About the project

Kontinuum features dexterity based game mechanics built around collecting objects to the beat of music while flying through a psychedelic wormhole with a spaceship. The game is controlled merely by head movements. To steer the spaceship, players just point their heads in the desired direction. Although they move through the game world at high speeds, acceleration is avoided at all times to evade motion sickness. The collectible objects are placed in patterns based on the rhythm of a song that is played during each run. Additionally, a dynamic difficulty system is used to adapt the challenge to the player's skills and allow them to enter a state of flow and deep immersion.

Insight  •  Game Design Keeping players busy to avoid motion sickness.

Kontinuum's engaging gameplay and adaptive difficulty system help players focus on getting a high score and immerse themselves in the game world, and by that are a key part to prevent and deviate from motion sickness.

The game's core mechanic is controlling the spaceship, which functions as a toy. Just letting it fly around by rotating the head, "painting" figures with its trails is fun in itself.

Collectibles are placed based on the rhythm and pitch of the song and in a way so that they can be reached without having to tilt the head too far.

Players can choose a difficulty setting before starting the run. And while they are playing, a dynamic system adjusts the difficulty in finer steps, based on how many mistakes they make.

Additional game mechanics like avoidables or power moves, which give players a score multiplier for performing certain stunts with the spaceship, were planned as an expansion.

A lot of audiovisual feedback helps players quickly understand the game's controls and constraints.

The goal for each run of course is to reach the highest possible score. Avoiding mistakes lets players build up a multiplier.

Kontinuum's visual style was inspired by sci-fi movies, depictions of cyberspace from the 1980s, and glitch art. It is designed to meet the demands conditioned by technical flaws of headsets at that time, such as a very low resolution that can cause a noticeable screen-door effect.

More projects

VR Experience  •  2017

ZEISS Vision Science Lab

Central Vision Loss Simulation

Location Based AR Game  •  2012

floating about

© Joris Klause