AION: The Missing Archive

CALIBRATE THE MACHINE. ENTER THE PAST. RECOVER WHAT WAS ERASED.

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AION: The Missing Archive is a multi-room VR escape experience built around experimental time travel, environmental puzzles, physical interaction, and a history that was never meant to be recovered.

You begin inside the present-day AION Laboratory, where an experimental temporal system is being prepared to investigate missing institutional records.

◈ THE EXPERIMENT

AION is not simply a machine. It is an interface between the present and fragments of a timeline that no longer perfectly align.

Across three connected environments, you will search for clues, manipulate physical objects, unlock mechanical systems, and activate experimental temporal technology.

Every room brings you closer to the origin of the missing archive.

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◈ THREE CONNECTED ROOMS

PRESENT DAY → OBSERVATORY → PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE → RETURN

00 // AION LABORATORY

The experiment begins in the present-day AION Laboratory. Before temporal transfer can begin, the player must bring three independent systems online.

NAVIGATION // POWER // CORE

Each calibration uses a different physical interaction mechanic. Once all three locks are synchronized, the AION system becomes ready for temporal transfer.

CALIBRATION COMPLETE → TEMPORAL LINK ESTABLISHED

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01 // PHYSICS OBSERVATORY

The first destination is a historical physics and observatory workspace. At its center sits an early experimental time machine, visible behind glass but initially inaccessible.

Three independent mechanisms must be solved to recover the components required to unlock the chamber.

• Decode the environmental clues.
• Recover the required capsule components.
• Match each capsule to its corresponding system.
• Complete all three physical lock mechanisms.

3 / 3 LOCKS
↓
GLASS CHAMBER RELEASED
↓
TIME MACHINE ONLINE

The machine does not transport the player automatically. Once unlocked, the player must approach it and manually initiate the next temporal transfer.

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02 // PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE

The archive leads deeper into the institution's past. What first appears to be a historical office gradually reveals evidence of something much larger hidden beneath the school's history.

Search the environment. Recover archived evidence. Follow the traces left behind.

• Investigate the Principal's Office.
• Discover hidden areas and historical records.
• Understand the temporal anomaly.
• Recover and restore missing machine components.
• Break the repeating temporal regression.
• Repair the historical AION Time Machine.

RESTORE THE MACHINE. BREAK THE LOOP. FIND YOUR WAY BACK.

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◈ VR INTERACTION

AION was designed around direct physical VR interaction rather than traditional menu-driven puzzle solving.

Grab, inspect, carry, insert, activate, and manipulate objects directly using tracked motion controllers.

PHYSICAL OBJECTS	Grab, carry, inspect, and reposition puzzle components.
XR SOCKETS	Insert matching objects into mechanical lock systems.
ENVIRONMENTAL CLUES	Read the room and connect physical evidence to each puzzle.
RAY INTERACTION	Operate interfaces, controls, and interactable systems.
TIME MACHINES	Manually activate temporal transitions between environments.

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◈ TEMPORAL ROUTE

PRESENT DAY
00 // AION LABORATORY
          │
          ▼
01 // PHYSICS OBSERVATORY
          │
          ▼
02 // PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE
          │
          ▼
00 // RETURN

ONE EXPERIMENT. THREE ROOMS. ONE FRACTURED TIMELINE.

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◈ CONTROLS

VR Headset + Tracked Motion Controllers Required

Grab / Select	Grip
Activate / Interact	Trigger
Movement	XR Locomotion Controls
UI Selection	Controller Ray

For the intended experience, play using a supported VR headset with tracked controllers.

◈ BUILT WITH

Unity 6   //   XR Interaction Toolkit   //   OpenXR

Developed for CS 417 Intro to Extended Reality.

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◈ TEAM 17

Shicheng Hu	Principal's Office / Integration
Rebecca Samuel	AION Laboratory
Adhav Saravanan	Physics Observatory

◈ BUILD INFORMATION

This page contains the integrated MP1c build of AION: The Missing Archive.

Integrated scene progression:

00_AIONLab
     ↓
01_PhysicsRoom
     ↓
02_PrincipalOffice
     ↓
00_AIONLab // FINAL

For the intended experience, begin at the start of the experiment and complete the rooms in sequence.

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AION // TEMPORAL ARCHIVE

STATUS ONLINE

ARCHIVE INCOMPLETE

TEMPORAL LINK STABLE

The past is accessible.
It is not necessarily finished with you.