Jiayin Meng

Jiayin Meng

MSCS @ UC San Diego
BSCS @ UIUC

The Timebound Voyage

The Timebound Voyage

Project Overview

The Timebound Voyage is a puzzle-driven narrative experience built in VRChat, where players explore an abandoned pirate ship and uncover a mystery told across two moments in time. Inspired by time-travel stories and environmental storytelling, the project combines interactive puzzles, character-driven cutscenes, and VR-specific exploration to create a cohesive, story-centric adventure.

timebound voyage content

Exploration & Narrative Structure

  • Players board an old pirate ship and discover two important objects, a diary and a pocket watch.
  • These objects reveal fragments of a larger story and allow the player to move between the present and a key event in the past.
  • The experience gradually exposes the relationships, conflicts, and fate of the ship’s crew.

Two Interwoven Scenes

  • The present scene focuses on free exploration and environmental storytelling.
  • The past scene is viewed from the monkey Pip’s perspective and presents two guided cutscenes that reveals essential context.
  • Together, the two scenes build a complete understanding of the events on the ship.

Interactive Progression and Puzzle Elements

  • Players explore the ship, find several keys, and try them on locked doors or chests to open new areas.
  • A small jigsaw style puzzle is included as part of the progression.
  • By combining clues from both time periods, players determine where the treasure key was left behind.
timebound voyage content

Animation and Scene Integration

  • The past timeline sequence is created with Unity Timeline and features character animations, staged interactions, and AI generated voice acting that delivers dialogue and narrative cues.
  • These animated moments are integrated directly into gameplay through event driven triggers.
  • Events such as hints, world state changes, and story progression respond dynamically to player actions.

Technical and VR Interaction Design

  • Core interactions are implemented mainly using UdonSharp, including reading the diary, activating the pocket watch, unlocking doors and chests, solving the jigsaw puzzle, and triggering event sequences.
  • The past scene required custom VR adjustments, including a modified camera height, spatial boundaries, and visual guidance from Pip’s perspective to maintain clarity in VR.