The Brief
As a part of my course I was assigned to create a game within 3 weeks.
It had to be a first person game and had to convey a narrative to the player.
The constraint was that it had to be indoors.
Here is a link below to play my game, I hope you enjoy it if you do end up giving it a go!
The Process
After recently playing Outlast, I had quite a few ideas for a horror game already, and so I decided to do more research into horror games, specifically Outlast 1/2 and PT. I looked at how their levels were designed and how they build up suspense/tension before a jump-scare. I also actively focused on how they use sound to convey feelings and atmosphere to the player.
Outlast (Left)
P.T. (Right)
I really liked how PT featured a simple corridor and used small visual and audio based events to scare the player, and I definitely wanted to use some of these techniques in my game.
I also noticed how Outlast uses a lot of lighting to guide the player. A great example of it is shown in the image above, the lighting is indicating to the player their first encounter with a vent, its a great way to give the player a tutorial without spoon feeding it to them, giving the player the sense of accomplishment and not a sense of just following orders.
Both of these games make use of long windowless corridors with many rooms to explore, many of which have little to no view of the outside world which I noticed was a very common design choice in most horror games. It could be tied to a sense of bathophobia (a fear of being consumed by depths) or claustrophobia (a fear of tight spaces).
I started to begin creating a narrative and overall story for the game:
Set in a modern day de-urbanised city, the player, a investigative journalist has decided to make a story on an abandoned apartment block where 3 missing people had last been seen.
The narrative would have 3 different parts, each spanning a floor of the apartment.
The first floor, would have some minor events occurring, a door slamming behind them and finding some notes about what has been going on from first hand accounts scattered throughout the rooms. the first floor would be relatively clear.
The second floor, more events would occur such as objects being thrown around the rooms or scratching and crying being heard through walls and ajar doors. Notes would begin talking about 'the people upstairs'. The second floor would be somewhat cluttered with furniture and wall scribbles
The third floor, the entire floor would be covered in markings and patches of blood, there would be violent banging behind one of the doors and the player would eventually be chased out of the building and through the top floor window, landing in a dumpster and running away from the building.
The overall story back story that would be told through the notes would be about a human sacrifice that had occurred in an apartment on the top floor, releasing a spirit into the area who would torment all who came across it.
It was at this point that I began designing an apartment block, I created a small draft of what I wanted to model and was happy with and went straight into modelling with blender. I used a plug-in called ArchiPack for blender 2.8. This helped me to more easily create interiors and windows, walls etc.
I progressed quite well at this stage until it was time to import it all into unity at which point I found out that the way that ArchiPack uses bools doesn't work well with unity, every single door and window was replaced with huge grey cubes, not the best thing to happen 1 week into a 2 week project.
So it would take too long to make everything again from scratch or spend ages stressing over different ways to possibly fix it, so instead, I went back to doing more research and trying to come up with a more interesting story and setting.
After watching some gameplay of Alien Isolation and then playing it myself I really began to take interest in how they create a sense of danger even when you never physically see it, the sounds of something running through vents above you, the quick glimpse of its tail swinging out of a room while you hide under a desk.
It was at this point I was really interested in the idea of creating a sci fi horror game set in space, however instead of being hunted by an alien or space zombies, I thought I would do some research into The SCP Foundation and find an SCP that would survive the conditions necessary to get onto a space station. I asked some of my peers for their thoughts and feedback on my idea, and i received some very positive feedback with people saying its a great mix, and with games such as 'SCP: Containment Breach' to use as a reference for an SCP game, i decided to go straight for it.
I decided that the best SCP to use would be “SCP-096 - The 'Shy Guy'” by "Dr Dan" (http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-096). This SCP is practically invulnerable, and can effortlessly jump to the height of planes and satellites, it has survived all attempts to kill it by the SCP Foundation and it was documented that SCP- 096 did once complete a jump to the moon, killing a D-class (an expendable individual) stationed there, so it is completely within reason that it could jump and grab onto a space station in low earth orbit.
I then began designing the first level, I knew I wanted the player to begin in a corridor so I created a quick concept for the 1st main room that the player will enter. I set out to create a early base concept of the first room, an office type room with computer desks and a large window to add to the atmosphere and also explicitly show the player that they are in space. I also wanted this to be a room where the player would have their first experience with a data pad and door terminal, To do this I intend to use lighting and level design to attract the player towards the objects.
I then began blocking the level out in unity and looking for an asset pack to build out the level. I came across a brilliant pack called 'Sci-Fi Styled Modular Pack' by Michał Karbowiak (found at https://karboosx.net).
I then began adding some audio into the game such as footsteps and background ambience, the ambience is something I wanted to focus on as it would end up being the component that would carry the atmosphere. After some browsing online I finally settled on Star Freighter by Tabletop Audio (https://tabletopaudio.com). For footsteps I just used some metal footstep audio from zapsplat.com.
After making the level in unity I decided to get some feedback on the game, mainly just the level, I wanted to see how they would interact with it and what kind of direction they would head in straight away.
A few players walked towards the table and looked at the datapad, others walked straight towards the door and skipped the datapad altogether, so to try and guide the player more to the datapad I increased the brightness of the light above the datapad lightly and also added some clutter to cut off the paths past the table.
In the image above you can see the added clutter highlighted in yellow, the intention of the clutter is to block off certain pathways so that the player is funnelled into a specific direction while still making it feel as though the player is the one making the decision to head into the direction. By doing this I was also able to add in some environmental story telling, I added a collapsed vent, the vents being one of the main modes of transport for the creature. I also added a bookshelf and filled it with a bunch of smaller objects just to make the place feel like people were there at some point other than the room just being empty, this is something that Alien Isolation did really well, having every room be full of life, which in turn makes the world feel more believable and the player more immersed.
A critique that popped up often was the fact that there was no sense of danger within the game, I agreed and following this I went online and found a free SCP - 096 model on Sketchfab by https://sketchfab.com/max66410. I made no changes to this model or textures associated, however I did add animations to it. I then added a window to the side of the starting hallway and found some blood textures. I then put all of these together and created a small scene through the window for the player to see to the creature, I then went and found some crying audio from YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UA6Y4AiSKc) and put it all together, it looked much better, but it still looked a bit too clean, so I went back online to Mixamo and found that they had some soldier characters pre rigged, so I found an animation that I liked of them looking like they're dead, and then threw a bunch of them into the scene around the SCP creature. As morbid as it is, it really tied the scene together.
Another aspect that one of the users that tested the first prototype mentioned was that the level was too dark and needed a torch, I thought that was a brilliant idea and immediately went searching for one, admittedly I could have modelled and textured my own but with the time remaining getting less and less I decided to find a torch online with textures and all and sure enough I came across this (https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/props/electronics/flashlight-18972) on the asset store, a flashlight with high quality PBR textures.
I threw on a spotlight at the end of the torch and moved it nicely into the players view, I created a simple script to turn the torch on and off as well as recharge the batteries by spamming E. I feel like the torch is a great addition as it gives the player a way to combat the dark fog and navigate areas, it gives the player some control and something to think about.
I then decided that it was time to make the data pad UI elements for the player to interact with to read emails, stories and generally pieces of text to make the world feel a little more real and to convey the story to the player. Not only can story be conveyed through this method but also gameplay mechanics, for example if the player is within the engineering decks and finds a data pad near a gas valve where the data pad reads 'this valve controls the noxious gas connected to the zombies' containment room' the player could then piece together what the valve controls, what its outcome could be and what effect it would have on the gameplay.
To begin with for the data pads I had a look at a few different operating systems, mainly iOS, MacOS and Android. I wanted to take the ideas from Alien: Isolation and the terminals from there and convert their designs into a portable version with a battery life, network connection and apps.
The general OS is shown on the left and then as I went further into the development of the data pad I added a design for the email system as well a as a clock in the centre near the top as a portable device would usually have. I experimented with a few different colour schemes, but I eventually settled on white as it looked rather clean and modern as well as standing out on the dark levels, I also felt that a white light would be clearer to see in the fog than a dark green one. I then began drafting some emails from work, personal relations and some silly ads to break tension and work as comedic breaks from the otherwise morbid and looming fear aspect of the main game..
It was now that I began thinking about making the second part of the level. It would be a 2 floor storage room full of different containers, shelves and racks as well as random dumped items.
Ground Floor (Left)
2nd Floor (Right)
This room would be completely different from the last, the player would enter the room and would not be able to see the exit at all, this is to get the player to explore and investigate their surroundings, another way i sought out to achieve this was to have a blood trail on the floor, my hope was that the player would see it, realise it was leading to a direction and then follow it to a data pad, not only does this bring that player to a data pad but it also tell the player that if there is a trail of blood that maybe they should follow it, a sort of communication between me and the player.
The two other stimuli the player would notice as soon as they walked into the room would be the flickering broken projector, heading towards this would give a slight glance at the exit, giving the player a little more direction, but still needing to explore to get there. As the player would progress through the level they would find that the only way to progress was the stairs, this would give them a nice vantage point over the entire ground floor and allow them to progress to the next section of the room, the generator. I wanted to draw the players attention to the generator so I used a spotlight from the ceiling the aimed it at the terminal that controlled it. I did this so that the player knew that it was important and that its an area they should head to. Once the player interacted with the terminal there would be a sound trigger to inform the player that it did something, then the emergency systems would shut down, removing the red glowing lights and enabling the clean white lights. This would also activate the ventilation system which would remove all fog and smoke from the level so far. My intention was to make the player wonder if the game was over, if the next room was just the 'victory' room. I wanted to make the player let their guard down.
Then as soon as they open the door, they hear the crying of the SCP again and they are greeted with this corridor.
From here on it is a series of connecting corridors leading to a few dead ends of locked room and then finally ending up at the SCP. The final section of the game. As the corridors go on I wanted to continue to experiment with how I could get the player interact and react to certain clues and hints as to how to progress.
The door on the right very vaguely shows a silhouette (it doesn't come across very well in screen shot form) of the SCP hunched over in the room, this gives the player an idea of what is to come, and lets them know what they are heading towards.
The door on the left is very simple, however it is non-verbally telling the player that to progress they will have to crouch. It again gives the player the feeling that THEY worked it out and weren't spoon fed the information with a little pop up saying 'Use CROUCH to crawl below doors!'.
As the player would progress down these corridors they would eventually end up at a scene like this.
Now that the actual gameplay part of the game was over, i only had a couple of days left for development at this stage. I decided to use this time to create a pause menu with a settings tab to allow the player to customise the volume of the game, i also created a main menu built in to the 3D environment for the added immersion. Along with this i created the game over screen so that the player would know that the prototype was finished that there was nothing more to come, it would allows the player to restart and exit the game instead of having to alt+f4 or pause and exit.
These were all fairly simple, I created them using text within unity itself.
For the pause menu I used the background of the data pad design I had, this was to add to the immersion of that instead of just being a plain pause menu, the player is instead looking at their personal data pad.
The settings area was relatively easy to create and code, I just had to make sure that every audio source was connected to the master audio mixer so that it could be controlled by the slider script I had made.
It was at this point that the deadline was here and I was done with the project. It was tons of fun and definitely something I might pick up and work on again, I learnt a lot about level design from this project and I'm very happy with how it came out for the time I had to work on it.
