PROJECT PURPOSE AND DESIGN GOALS
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This project was on using a creative brief to create a functional level using game engine tools and your scripted interactions.
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I chose the "psychological" brief, which focused on eliciting intended reactions in the player. This could range from emotions, moods, phobias or visual perception of space.
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I wanted to focus on creating a game that replicated the feeling of anxiety in the player. This was a relatively tricky topic as it required me to focus on my level and gameplay design on creating anxiety. I also had to be ethical in my design approach to avoid making light of such a heavy concept.
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I wanted anxiety to influence my gameplay and have the player actions be hampered by the amount of anxiety the character was feeling in game.
The first thing I did was extensive research into anxiety itself.
I went in-depth into what was anxiety, the different types of anxiety (General anxiety disorder, panic disorders) and the symptoms and reactions individuals face when they feel anxious.
It became clear to me that I could incorporate physical symptoms directly into the gameplay and that would have a direct correlation to the difficulty of the game.
Extra research was conducted to see who are normally affected by anxiety, what types of people and what are the reasons behind it. Research showed that anxiety can come from genetics and is usually due to an imbalance of hormones. A lot of stimulus that is related to anxiety is usually stress or work but it's still too vague to pinpoint to the kind of people that always have it.
The environmental factors that can lead to anxiety are:
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Past or childhood experiences
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Current life situations
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Physical and mental health problems
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Drugs and medication
Next, I did research into video games and their relationship to anxiety. I specifically wanted to look at games that have anxiety in their themes and how they draw them out.
Those games were:
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Celeste
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"Anxiety attack"
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Outlast 2
Lastly was all my research into levels and architecture. I thought about where I wanted to set my game first but then came to the realization that if I attach a setting to the game, then the game could be unintentionally expressing a message on the place being an anxiety source, which is unethical and poor design.
Instead I decided it would be better if the setting stays ambiguous and instead focus my architecture research on areas that contain tight spaces, corridors and generic spaces that create the feeling of anxiety and tension.
Elevators:
Looking into elevators, there are many horror titles that use elevators and concept of waiting to generate the feeling of unease found in anxiety.
Hospital hallways:
When you remove the bright lighting and close it off with doors or walls, it becomes a tight claustrophobic space that makes players feel that anything can jump out at any time.
Space stations:
I went through space architecture because I wanted to see how sci-fi games took a space ship and turned it into a claustrophobic space.
RESEARCH
PLANNING
MECHANICS AND GAMEPLAY
With my concept planned and my research done, I first went through the process of planning my mechanics. I wanted my mechanics and game interactions to make the player anxious. I wanted my level design to assist in it, but my mechanics would be the core behind my game's experience.
USER INTERFACE
I started planning out the UI of my game after I finished thinking of the mechanics and gameplay. For the UI, I wanted it to be directly related to the number of enemies surrounding the player. When there are more enemies the vignette would get more opaque making it harder to see. It would also have the ammo count on the bottom of the screen.
LEVEL DESIGN
For the level design, I started by how I used to do my 2D level design. I'd draw out my spaces on a piece of paper and plan out how the player would tackle each space.
DEVELOPMENT
MATERIALS
ANIMATIONS
RELOADING
AIM DOWN SIGHTS
SHOOTING
AI ENEMIES
CINEMATICS
There are two cinematics in the game:
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The first cinematic is an automatic elevator sequence at the start of the game
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The second is a trigger elevator sequence where the player reaches the end of the game
DYNAMICALLY CHANGING SOUNDS
Dynamically changing sounds occurs when the player is approached by enemies. The background music fades and is replaced with heavy breathing or whispers.
Depending on the enemy the sounds will differ.
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Follow enemies make the player's breathing heavier
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Turning AI will make whispers louder
LEVEL DESIGN
FIRST VERSION
FINAL VERSION
FULL LEVEL BREAKDOWN
When planning the level I wanted each room to be a different representation of anxiety as a whole.
With how each room is structured the level is supposed to tell a narrative regarding how the player is supposed to climb out of social anxiety.
Each room is created to tell a part of that story.
INTRO
OPTION A
OPTION B
END
WHAT I LEARNT
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This was my first time using Unreal Engine 4 so I learnt a ton about the process of making games in Unreal Engine 4
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I also learnt a lot in regards to psychology and intentionally invoking player emotion through design decisions (specifically through my level design)
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Finally I learnt more about level design theory and the process of creating block meshes and prototype levels using an a game engine.