Pattern Recognition: Failed

This project is a first-person exploration game built in Unity with C#, centered around a "scanning" mechanic where a malfunctioning robot must interpret everyday objects and those interpretations evolve the longer you interact with them.

Github: pattern-recognition-failed-repo

Features

• Scan & Interpret System — Objects must be scanned before they can be interacted with. Scanning triggers a robot-voice interpretation that gets logged to a scan journal the player can review at any time.
• Evolving Descriptions — Some objects unlock new interpretations through continued interaction (hold a Lego long enough, sink enough baskets with the basketball) and the robot's understanding shifts. Players are notified and prompted to re-check the scan log.
• Pick-up & Throw Mechanics — Holdable objects (Lego bricks, a basketball, a data chip) float in front of the player and respond to input. The basketball can be thrown; the chip can be slotted into a panel.
• Timed Puzzle Loop — The main objective involves synthesising a data chip and uploading it to a control panel, each with real-time countdowns displayed in the HUD.
• Reactive UI — A slide-in banner system delivers contextual updates (new interpretations, upload progress, narrative beats). A scan log menu shows the robot's current understanding of each scanned object.

What I Learned

• Interactable architecture — An abstract Interactable base class handles scanning, focus/outline states, and the interact pipeline. Subclasses (Lego, Basketball, ChipSynthesiser, etc.) override only what they need, keeping behaviour isolated and composable.
• State-driven coroutines — Multi-stage timed processes (synthesis, upload) run as coroutines with an enum state machine, preventing double-triggers and updating the UI each frame while active.
• Input routing & held-object logic — PlayerInteraction manages what happens when the player presses interact depending on what they're holding and what they're looking at — including special-cased interactions like inserting a chip into a panel.
• Static shared state — Objects like Block use static flags and a shared instance list so scanning one block transforms all of them simultaneously, without a central manager needing to track them.