Explosive Locomotion

Explosive Locomotion was developed for the “Travel & Transit” Elective of the h_da in 2022, where different means of travel and movement in VR, but also the meaning of transitional spaces out of VR where analyzed. Therefore, this project was created rather for research purposes and proposes a completely new locomotion technique, namely “Explosive Locomotion”. This technique equips the user with two abilities: One to spawn an explosive, which can be held in hand, thrown away or stuck to any nearby surface; and the trigger to detonate said explosive. The only way a user may move through space is by positioning an explosive close-by and then detonating it, thereby launching themselves in the opposite direction. Launch velocity and direction depend on the relative distance and position of the explosion to the player, as well as on the manually configurable explosive force.
More skilled users might even be able to chain multiple explosions consecutively to build more velocity or change their trajectory mid-air.

This application also includes a test course displaying a wide range of different obstacles, designed to test out different means of explosive travel and tweak our implementations. To reach its goal, a user first needs to build a solid understanding of how to best utilize explosive locomotion to their advantage.

My Contributions to this Project

Idea & Concept

Code Development in C#

VR Implementation in Unity3D

Sound Design

Interaction Design

Image Gallery

The explosive used to move around

The detonator (representing the right controller) displaying the currently set detonation strength

The explosion effect right after detonating the mine

Place multiple mines before detonating them together, they even stick to surfaces

Player in mid-air after launching themselves, now bracing for landing on the floating platform

The obstacle course built to test out the mechanics

This project has been developed by Daniel Heilmann and Lili Weirich during summer term 2022, for the course “Travel & Transit” at the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, taught by Prof. Dr. Philip Hausmeier.