RoboTraps

RoboTraps is the name of a Virtual Reality game developed by German developer Poltergames in 2016, which has been made available on Steam, Oculus Store and Viveport. Depending on the version, it supports the HTC Vive or Oculus Rift. A mobile cardboard version has also been published, but it has less content.

Development history
The game started as a student project in 2016 and originally was not developed with a focus on VR. Later in the same year, it was decided to bring the game to Virtual Reality devices to increase the potential for level designs, the storytelling and level of innovation.

The game was then pushed to Oculus Store and Google play in December 2016. A port for Steam was released in early 2017 on both Steam and Viveport.

Team
See Poltergames.

Music
All of the music in RoboTraps is taken from the website incompetech.com, with attribution being given to creator Kevin MacLeod in the credits.

MacLeod's piece Last Kiss Goodnight was used as the basis of Robots, a song with lyrics and singing by Spitzer, that runs during the credits and promotional videos.

Gameplay
The goal in RoboTraps is to solve several types of puzzles, all of which have in common that the player must lead a handful of robots to the goal of the level. Many hazards wait in the robots' path, but also objects that redirect them or otherwise change their movement, like teleporters.

The player can interact with a wide variety of objects through the use of levers, which they can remote-control using the VR controller. Such objects may be traps like saws or flamethrowers, but also direction changing arrows, plates immobilizing the robots, or even gravity. The level layouts are tile based, allowing a good observer to anticipate the robot movement ahead of the time. Grey robots that may e.g. step on switches complicate things.

During the course of the game, the player is placed in a mobile "office" that will bring them to the various departments of the factory the game takes place in, and which also displays the game state on several screens. Progress in the game is rewarded with decorative rewards for the office. An announcer comments on the player's progress and guides them, but also serves as comic relief.

Platforms
The Oculus Rift version supports both the Touch Controllers and gameplay without them.
 * Steam (HTC Vive)
 * Oculus Store (Oculus Rift)
 * Viveport (HTC Vive)

Destruction Department Update
In late 2017, an update was added to RoboTraps. It included the Destruction Department building with four new levels, several bug fixes, improved graphics, additional aiding details in earlier levels, additional promotions, rewards and announcements, as well as a song performed by the announcer during the credits.

Due to the fact that the co-creator of RoboTraps had retired from development by then, level designer, programmer and voice actor of the Announcer Michael Spitzer implemented the update on his own.