The Beast... From The Third Dimension!
The Beast... From The Third Dimension! from Eoin Roche
The Beast... From The Third Dimension!

The Beast… FROM THE THIRD DIMENSION! is an asymmetric multiplayer virtual reality video game developed in Unity. A group of intrepid scientists and engineers from the two dimensional world of Flatland fold part of their world into a cylinder, inadvertently capturing a denizen of the third dimension in the process. Understandably irate at its confinement, this creature begins to try to destroy the object trapping it, while the flatlanders attempt to subdue the creature before it’s too late.

This game was designed and developed as part of my masters course in Interactive Digital Media, where I served as both the lead designer and lead developer for the project. The design of the game was aimed at playing with the asymmetry of the 2D and 3D worlds while simultaneously being intuitive and approachable. I wanted to create a party game that would allow multiple people to experience VR while only needing a single VR system in the hope of making such experiences more accessible.

The promotional art used at the game's exhibition. (Artist Killian Desmond.)
A screenshot of all four 2D Flatlander player's perspectives.
View from the monster as they pick up a Flatlander and drag them into the 3D world.
View of the monster player embedding a hypersquare into flatland. If left unanswered by the Flatlanders, it will eventually destroy their world and allow the monster to escape!
A Perpendicular Matter Projector firing and wounding the monster.
Early design art exploring the idea of having a bendable 2D plane which the flatlanders could move through.
The first concept art detailing the eventual design of the game, with a 2D cylinder trapping a 3D monster.
Very early example of a scene with the objects being confined to the surface of a cylinder.
Early example of the project with a working 2D character controller. The level here is a cylinder, with the character moving and jumping around that environment in a similar manner to a 2D platformer.
A major mechanic for the monster player was the ability to throw hypersquares at the Flatlanders. The above is an early implementation of this.
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The Beast... From The Third Dimension!

The Beast… FROM THE THIRD DIMENSION! is an asymmetric multiplayer virtual reality video game developed in Unity. A group of intrepid scientists and engineers from the two dimensional world of Flatland fold part of their world into a cylinder, inadvertently capturing a denizen of the third dimension in the process. Understandably irate at its confinement, this creature begins to try to destroy the object trapping it, while the flatlanders attempt to subdue the creature before it’s too late.

This game was designed and developed as part of my masters course in Interactive Digital Media, where I served as both the lead designer and lead developer for the project. The design of the game was aimed at playing with the asymmetry of the 2D and 3D worlds while simultaneously being intuitive and approachable. I wanted to create a party game that would allow multiple people to experience VR while only needing a single VR system in the hope of making such experiences more accessible.

Eoin Roche
Game Designer Dublin, Ireland