Gem Quest VR
Gem Quest is a virtual reality exploration game set in a vibrant, magical landscape, where players are tasked with uncovering a variety of hidden gems scattered throughout a single, richly detailed environment. Players collect these gems using intuitive HTC Vive motion controls, accruing points toward the ultimate goal: unlocking a mystical reward at the end of the rainbow.
The game uses a custom randomization engine developed in C#, which dynamically determines both the type and location of each gem per session, as well as generates corresponding UI sprites. This procedural element not only enhances replayability but also contributes to the feeling of true exploration, as no two playthroughs are alike. The player’s inventory is visualized with custom-generated sprites, maintaining aesthetic consistency while adapting to the randomness of gameplay.
Lead Programmer & Co-Developer
Unity3D, UnityXR, HTCVive
Goal
The primary design goal of Gem Quest was to explore spatial immersion and the aesthetics of procedural discovery within VR environments, while maintaining the clarity and usability typical of casual games. By centering the player’s experience around embodied search behaviors—rather than complex mechanical challenges—the project interrogates how environmental interaction and sensory feedback can generate emotional engagement without traditional narrative scaffolding.
Technically, the project investigates how real-time procedural generation and spatial randomness impact player agency and memory mapping in bounded 3D worlds. Drawing from concepts in spatial HCI, procedural poetics, and tactile interaction design, Gem Quest aims to create a framework where player-driven curiosity and embodied navigation replace goal-based progress structures. The broader objective is to construct a low-friction VR experience that remains aesthetically rich, interactive, and endlessly replayable.
Results
The world of Gem Quest was constructed in Unity using terrain sculpting, hand-painted texture mapping, and particle systems to convey a cohesive magical ecosystem. A custom randomization algorithm governs the spawning of gems, factoring in terrain elevation, proximity to visual landmarks, and object occlusion to maintain believability and difficulty balance. Each gem is instantiated with a unique identifier and rendered with shader-enhanced visual variation, ensuring aesthetic diversity.
Interaction design was achieved through HTC Vive integration, utilizing Unity’s XR toolkit to map motion controllers to object selection, pickup, and inventory tracking systems. The inventory system dynamically generates custom UI sprites at runtime to reflect the randomized gem types, using a scriptable object architecture for modular extensibility. A visual feedback system—incorporating subtle particle cues, sound design, and haptic response—reinforces successful interaction events, enhancing immersion and spatial awareness.
The experience is grounded in environmental storytelling and sensory aesthetics, with attention paid to color grading, atmospheric audio loops, and ambient movement (such as drifting clouds and rippling water) to maintain an emotional tone of calm wonder. By aligning technical systems with a cohesive aesthetic vision, Gem Quest creates a tactile, emotionally resonant VR experience that rewards attention, presence, and play.