Nyctophobia
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Platform: PC, keyboard and mouse controls only
Reception: Resulted in A+ grade Skill focus: Level, mechanic and enemy design, mechanic and enemy AI programming, environmental programming. Time spent: 3 months Engine and tools: Unreal 4.17, Unreal Blueprint scripting, Starter content folder, Maya 2017, Photoshop 2017 |
Summary of Contributions
- Overall level layout design - For this project it was inspired by the likes of the Haunted Mansion however due to time constraints and a lack of knowledge of how to use UE4 at the time I compromised for making the building into a modern art museum.
- Mission design - The project was to tie in a brief of our choice as to showcase our knowledge creatively. Choosing the psychology brief and inspired by the likes of Amnesia: The Dark Descent and the overall concept of an almost-invisible monster, I created a short narrative in which the player has an intense fear of the dark and collect a set of keys to reactivate the lights. The condition known as nyctophobia (although it has many names) has both psychological and physical symptoms. I originally wanted to have meshes and textures change once the rooms went dark as a way to portray the psychological symptoms of paranoia however I compromised with creating a "breathing" mechanic instead to portray physical symptoms instead.
- Mechanic Design - The hyper ventilation/panic attacks is a physical symptom of nyctophobia so the development of the breathing mechanic was a simple but effective way to portray this in game. Over time as the player moves, a fear meter slowly increases and if filled the player would lose the game. To combat this however the player would press the E key as a way to calm themselves down and lower the fear meter. To run from the monster, the player could sprint but this would dramatically increase the fear meter so it was best to try and avoid the monster by sneaking around it. Another way to add tension was my inclusion of battery life for the players torch, if it reached 0 then the torch would be disabled until the player found a set of batteries which could be found at various areas around the level.
- Design of the Enemy and its AI - As a way to save time on any animation implementation or character modelling, I created the monster to be invisible with some yellow spotlights acting as indicators of its position and 2 floating yellow eyes to add intimidation from within the darkness. It had a simple premise, patrol a predetermined path within the building until it spotted the player. If it spotted the player then it would come off this path and chase the player. If it lost sight of the player then it would return to its patrol path and continue but if it caught the player then the player loses and the game ends.
- UI and HUD Design - One of the requirements was to create and use widgets within the game. I created an inventory system to display the keys collected by the player, how much battery life was left in the players torch and to showcase the fear and sprint meters as well as the players current objective. The inclusion of a start menu, death screen, and game completion screen were also created to help the game have a full start and ending.
- Minor Asset Creation - I created the UI and HUD assets using Photoshop with the exception of the mansion seen in the main menu which was free sourced online.
- Audio Design - Audio implementation was another requirement, most of the audio was sourced from freesound.org but the rasping and wind sound effects were done by myself using an old headset microphone and Audacity.
Below is a copy of my design document:
level_design_portfolio.pdf | |
File Size: | 5911 kb |
File Type: |