NEST BUILDER MR
I designed and developed Nest Builder MR, a mixed reality experience showcasing the life of a bird building its nest during the breeding season. Created for Pugmark Qmulus Consortium (PQC), The goal was to create an interactive survival experience where players embody a bird during the harsh breeding season—facing predators, conserving energy, and adapting to the wild—all while physically moving through the real-world exhibit space.
Tools used
Unity
Meta Quest 3
Blender
Timeline
3 Weeks
Client
Pugmark Qmulus Consortium - India
Type
Mixed Reality Experience
Role
Lead Designer, Developer
About Client
Pugmark Qmulus Consortium (PQC) is a leading firm specializing in nature interpretation exhibit planning, design, fabrication, and consulting. Founded in 2006, PQC is driven by a passion for wildlife and has earned a reputation for delivering high-quality, immersive experiences across India. Their work focuses on making nature education memorable and engaging for visitors of all ages.
CONCEPT
The core idea was to create an immersive wildlife experience, I focused on the breeding season of the Indian Pitta (Pitta Brachyura)—also known as Navrang.
During research, I discovered fascinating survival behaviors of the species:
Breeding Season: May to August, across the Indian subcontinent, especially in central and peninsular India.
Nest Elevation: Indian Pittas often build nests 12–20 feet above ground to deter snakes and ground predators.
Survival Adaptations: Their nesting choices reflect constant struggles to adapt to environmental threats like predators and limited resources.
These behaviors inspired the gameplay and mechanics, translating real ecological challenges into interactive MR tasks.
Players step into the role of a wild Indian Pitta in the forests of Gujarat during breeding season.
As the bird, they must collect sticks scattered across the real exhibit space to build a nest high in a tree—while avoiding hungry snakes roaming the ground. The experience blends physical space and virtual gameplay, letting players literally walk, fly, and interact with the environment as they help the bird survive and secure a safe nesting site.
Game Mechanics
Bird Flying: Players flap their “wings” by rapidly tapping the controller button to simulate the effort of real bird flight.
Stick Collection: Fly down to the floor to collect sticks and carry them back to the tree one by one to gradually build the nest.
Energy Bar: Flying drains energy, forcing players to land and rest to recover before continuing their mission—mirroring the stamina limits of real birds.
Snake Enemy: AI-controlled snakes patrol the floor. If a player’s energy runs out mid-flight, they risk falling into the path of a predator and losing a life.
Built entirely in Unity for Meta Quest 3 which runs locally on headset, the game integrates mixed reality room mapping to blend the exhibit’s physical layout with virtual gameplay.
Players must collect 10 sticks within 5 minutes to complete the nest while conserving energy, avoiding snakes and preserving all 5 lives.
I developed all game mechanics, textured 3D assets in Blender, designed the UI, and implemented sound effects, background music, and a scoring system to polish the final experience.
Output
What's Next
Fine-tuning difficulty and flying mechanics based on exhibit visitor feedback.
Adding a tutorial scene to help players quickly adapt to the gameplay.
Introducing a multiplayer mode where two birds build the nest together, reflecting real Indian Pitta couples who co-build their nests in nature.
Building the assets with trees native to tropical regions of India and accurately modeling the Indian Pitta bird and indigenous snake species.
