WARNING! Disturbing images!
Why there is minimal amount of primary research?
I found one problem with primary research, I am unable to access some necessary resources counted as primary research like a dead human body I can study. There is museum presenting our structure, however its in London, and its not in my financial range for now. I am not even thinking about killing someone to have my necessary primary research, that’s why I am going to limit my self to survey, or maybe try to get like a skeleton doctors are using with all insides, and organs in our body.
Inspiration
I really like my idea of reverse world. I came to this idea through unexpected and funny way. My friend Josh was creating concept art for his tree asset, however he is not the best artist, and first thing that came to my head was “spread legs”. That’s how its started. Through brutal and disturbing jokes, I actually developed interesting world idea, and later, my Final Major Project idea.
Furniture is important part of my level, reversed models with visible agony and brutality. I obviously needed something I can relate to, fake, or real life stories. I started reading book of famous horror writer Dean Koontz called “77 Shadow Street” to find some inspiration for my game because this book same as my game, is set in one building where disturbing things are happening. I like idea from the book with mushrooms and spore coming from them, transforming world, and weird monsters description.
Other place where I found inspiration is America from 1900s. Back then, on August 27 1906 Edward Theodore Gein was born. This man was inspiration for many movies, like “Psycho” or “Silence of the Lambs”. His creations shocked the world, and gave me inspiration for my game.
This man was a grave robber, murderer, necrophiliac, and cannibal. He had a rule to not waste any body part of his victims. One of his creations is above, lamp made of human spine, and skin all around the body. Rest of the body was eaten by him. That was really sick man, with controversial imagination. His creations will really help me to create my assets for my environment. Lamp is definitely one of them because its easy light source to place in the world. I like the spine idea, I would probably use many bones to make it. The only thing I need to change is the bottom, in my game there is no space for cable, or legs at the bottom, and make it a bit more disgusting with a skin parts coming of at the top.
Top chair is someone art creation which in my opinion represents the brutality required to made a chair of real skin, somewhere animal must die to realise this project. Second picture is creation of a man I mentioned up there. This chair is one of his creation, made of skin of more than one person. I really want to fuse both pictures into one, and make it an asset later.
Other place where I am finding inspiration is a game this time called “Agony”. In this game our protagonist end up in hell and he want to escape this place. Story, however is not important for me. I really care about environment in this game. Creepy, disturbing, brutal, gore scenes, nudity, increased body parts, and meat and blood are something that interest me in this game. Places like on the picture below are scary, make player feel uncomfortable, and that,s what I want to achieve in my game.
The only problem is my lack of skills in making 3D assets, I really need a help of my teachers, and tutorials to make at least some of them on the decent level.
Skeletons are hard to make as 3D model I guess, that’s why I am not sure how to make most of my furniture.
Mechanics
Collectables are a huge part of horror games. In games like “Outlast” we are collecting batteries for our camera, in “Slenderman” we are collecting sheets of paper (and at the same time, its a win condition), same situation is in “Resident Evil” and basically in most of existing horror games. My game will probably also include some type of collectables, because its easy to implement, and extremely easy to explain to player.
23/01/19 – I decided to include collectable item in my game, and at the same time, this item will be a win condition of my game. Item I am talking about is Teddy Bear. Why? Let me explain. From story perspective it make sens, protagonist is a child, which mean he have favourite toy he is ready to die for, in this situation its bear. Monster also have a reason to take it, he love nature, and bears are innocent part of nature we humans are destroying. Child started to wake up, and scare him (monster don’t want to be seen in our dimension), that’s why he only taken child teddy bear. Our protagonist is a small, not thinking seriously child, and he run after monster, to get his toy back. Second, its easy to implement win condition, and collectable is making this actually a game, instead of interactive environment.
Camera another often think to see in horrors. In game like “Outlast” its important part of gameplay, because camera allow him to record creepy thing going on in there, but also work as nigh vision. Thing is, I don’t see a point to use a camera in my game because player is a child, he doesn’t carry camera everywhere he go.
Shooting is common for survival horrors. Exploring creepy location knowing there is danger inside, and you have a weapon, but only with two bullets in it is extremely interesting because require some thinking from player, management of resources, and strategy, however situation is the same as in camera situation, player is a child. I know its limiting me in many ways, however I really want to keep child idea, its going to make a game even creepier.
Hiding is actually interesting mechanic, which allow you to dodge the danger. I really like how hiding worked in “Alien Isolation”, where Alien is to powerful to fight with, forcing player to hiding. I really like this idea, however I am not sure of how to implement it into a game.
During a research I found a forum, when one of users was looking for same thing as me, and I found two tutorials showing how to make hiding in wardrobe real in unreal engine. I am schocked how easy it is, and I am going to implement it into my game for sure.
Win condition is something every game need, however I found out, horror games win condition is very simple most of the time. Collect item, escape, kill something. Even Call of Duty have more advanced win condition. I am going to use one of first two in my game.
Fail condition is nearly always the same… being killed by monster, or by environment. My game will include environmental death, but option of being killed his related to creating monster, which is time consuming.
Audio
Audio is important part of every horror game, slow violin while we are walking through the dark corridor, music is speeding up and becoming louder, and we know something is going to happen. Also in so often in horror Technic called “Jump Scare” sound is a big part, something loud is played while on the screen is creepy face. Music is big part of building atmosphere, and sounds of footsteps can stop our hearth for second.
In terms of audio I have two sources, one of them is public, its a website with royalty free sounds, these sounds are commonly used in games and movies. The only problem is, i need to make account to actually download them.
https://freesound.org/search/?q=horror
Second is dedicated only to me. I have a good friend from Poland, Jeremi Januszewicz. This man is creating music since childhood, and currently he is building portfolio for university, by uploading his songs on SoundClound. I receive his official permission to use his songs in my game. I really like them because slow jazz is increasing surreal vision of this world. Abstract and creepy at the same time, however if music he is creating will not meet my expectations, I can always ask him, to make something a bit creepier.
I aspecially like “Demo 10: Ronny is back”, “Demo 9: like a monk”, “Angle eyes” this songs is a it creepy, and fit my game very well in my opinion.
Monster
Another thing I would like to inspire from Agony is monsters. This monsters remind me my idea of monster made of nature, and his head
I created first mood board dedicated to the monster, I want him to be humanoid because this type of monsters are much creepier for us, they are primal, angry and ugly, but at the same time, very similar to us. That’s why I want him to be humanoid. In terms of his construction, I found some creepy plants and fungus that can be used in my design of this creature.
I also created very rough idea of my monster in Photoshop to show, what I want to achieve. His head in current version is made of the plant that eat insects, his kidneys below the chest are made of pitcher plant, which is collecting water, and will make him stay alive.
His muscles are going to be made of grass strings, however in some places his body is going to be hardened by rocks, kinda what one of titans in Japanese “Attack on Titan” have, his body is covered in rock like armour. My monster is going to have less body covered with rocks, only parts like shoulders, knees and parts of the leg.
Fingers are going to be important part of his body. I need them to look dangerous, like something that can actually kill an adult. To achieve this I need to find something sharp and long to work as his fingers, or even as entire arm. In upper picture I used sharp leaves from desert plant, however its not scary enough in my opinion. I need to change it into something brutal, like a cactus for example. In one of first sketches I replaced one of his arms into huge cactus, but that look ridiculous and not scary at all.
Door to reverse
I came with three ideas of the “door” to reverse dimension.
First of them is wardrobe like in “Monster Inc”, where monsters were moving to our world to scar children. Also in “Narnia” protagonists were moving to different world through the wardrobe. This idea came to my mind first, I even included it in my presentation, however now I am thinking its to… boring. Its so generic, something bad in the wardrobe. I don’t really like this idea anymore, however at the same time, its the easiest one to make.
TV is also a great idea for a portal to other world. Currently TVs are very chap, and young people are buying them for console games, which mean there is high possibility of a child with TV in the room. This idea is also used in other media, like in movie “The Ring” where a main antagonist is leaving the TV in creepy way, also in the book I am reading for references, monster is turning on TVs in the building, and talk through them to the people. In the book strong blue light is coming from TV, I can replace it with red light, and add something like whisper coming from the other side.
Mirror would be cool representation of reversed dimension, player moving through the mirror to different dimension, like in “Stranger things”, however I did some research, and I found a video where author talk about mirror in games. Basically mirrors are hard to make because light in games technically doesn’t exist. Its impossible for computer to generate reflexes in the game, and that’s why developers are using tricks to make mirrors, or reflexes in water/on specific surfaces. To create mirror, developers are hiding cameras behind mirrors, or even recreating entire level behind it (second video 6:58). That’s why mirrors are always in small rooms, because sometimes its easier for them recreate the room behind invisible wall, than play with cameras etc.
In conclusion, mirrors are not that easy to make, even AAA products have problem with them, however they are making games in their own engines most of the time. We have only two options, Unity and Unreal. In Unity its probably a nightmare to make a mirror, however in Unreal Engine basically you need to create special material, and then apply on the object. Its extremely easy to make.
And there we have another problem with mirrors, in first person game most of the time, player model is just a hands with a weapon, which mean mirror will show it to player. Making working player model will probably take me weeks to make, and that would be total waste of time, specially if only reason to create it, is one mirror in the game. That,s why this idea is not good for my game.
House/Environment
I have to options to make house of the monster, fully made of meat, or only partly. Both ideas give me a lot of possibilities, however its hard to decide which one I like better. Partly made of meat give me option to made lets say protagonist house but covered in human parts and stuff, make it real alternate universe, while fully made option is better as different dimension. There is one problem with partly made of meat option, this require from me making normal walls visible under the meat, however on the other side, I can add then some nature staff into the level, like a fungus growing everywhere.
Fully made of meat option require some more creativity from my side, because then everything need to be made out of human parts, and there is no space for disgusting things like fungus growing between the meat.
House of monster will be definitely based on British house, I like their simple design, and how small these are, while made of brick. I was also thinking about american houses, but their houses are poor looking in my opinion, I rather use our European style of building in my game.
I also considered French houses, however I found two totally different versions of their houses. Some are small like this:
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Its to small for anything I want to create. Second is more like this:
I don’t really have time to create entire mansion. British houses just fit perfectly into my vision.
Good example of partly made of meat level is game Scorn, where blood and meat are everywhere, on the floor, walls and even roof, however between them you can see normal si-fi walls, door, pipes etc.
I also really like the way weapon look and work in this game. Because of this gif, I considered adding a shot gun made of human spine, screaming in agony when you shoot, and whispering into player ear something like “Kill me please”, or “end my misery”, however first, I don’t have enough time to make shooting system in my game, collectable weapon and animations like reloading, second, in my game currently player is controlling a child because then camera can be set much lower, and everything look much bigger. Weapon in child hands is not something I really like.
In current idea house is going to be fully made of human flesh, bones and other parts, without even a sign of nature in this world. By “everything” I actually mean EVERYTHING, walls, floors, roofs, furniture, even small assets like cups or candles. I want different human fluids to just be on the ground, and screams coming from unaccessible areas.
Additionally I need mention child room where player is starting his journey. I want it to be simple, its not important location for the game and I don’t want to waste too much time working on the assets for this location. Below I implemented mood board with few design ideas I am going to use in my design of the room.
On this mood board I have few pictures I like. Common for for them are toys on the floor. Toys actually help to identify its a child room. Another thing I like on this pictures are pastel colours, everything is so bright, however it’s going to be hard to make them as bright in night environment. I am going to definitely include a big TV in room of my protagonist, because it’s going to be a portal to different world. Lucky for me, we are living in world where most of the young people living in Europe/USA have TV in their room for gaming purpose.
Layout:
I have few ideas for monster house layout. I am thinking to base his house on my house, keep furniture, and room layout like in my house, this option is simple to do (and probably count as primary research?), I can keep realistic room layout, and house shape. Other option is designing house layout by my self by looking at different houses layout, and try to form optimal for gameplay and interesting layout. Third option is to make just a surreal journey, where inside a house, one room is like a office in big corporation, other like room of protagonist, etc. I like surreal idea because there is a lot of space for my creativity, however there is also a lot of work to be done, different assets for every room, different task in every of them etc. Creating my own layout is going to take some time, which I can use on making assets or art, that’s why to save my self some time I decided to use my own house as reference for monster house. Its going to be quicker, decrease time required to create asset list and I really want to see my house as horror environment.
Story:
In other dimension there is a shadow creature. His world is empty, there is absolutely nothing, only a darkness, that’s why he decide to see other dimension. He end up in our world, full of beauty nature. He fall in love with nature. Trees, flowers, even a grass were inspiring him, he felt so good in our world. That’s when he discovered humans. Ugly two legs meat socks destroying nature, using his love to make their life easier. They were cutting down trees, killing plants with toxic gasses and build a houses on them. His anger made him furious. He decided to made a world, where nature is replaced with human flesh, bones and skin. To achieve this gol, he build a portal to our dimension, and capture humans, to convert them into furniture, parts of his home etc.
This is current version of the monster story. I think its quite original, and with some improvements, I could write a book about people moved to this world. I really like it. You can clearly observe some inspiration from “Stranger Things”, and the book I mentioned in inspiration section. I am going to include some questions about this story in my survey.
Survey
Link to my survey:
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/BMQHDW5
For my survey, I prepared 10 Questions, through the week i collected around 20 responses, now I will examine them, try to make some conclusions, and think what should I change in my game idea.
Question 1 have only two answers “Yes” or “No”. Majority of people answered “Yes” for this question, which mean most of the people enjoy survival horrors, and like to be scared, and disturbed.
Second question ask to specify which one of this games are familiar for asked person. Obvious decision of majority is Resident Evil series. I expected this result, because this is probably biggest survival horror serie out there. I gave people option to suggest their own games in “other” option, however most of them are not serious at all. Only probably serious answers suggested, “Five Nights At Freedy” or “Hello Neighbour”. Sadly two games I am using as reference for my game, “Agony” and “Scorn” are not known to any of asked people, which is absolutely fine, “Agony” sold only 90 000 copies, while Scorn is not released yet. Resident Evil is a good series, I need to look closer at it, and try to think what make this games so successful.
Question above, is very strong for majority as guess. For most of this people dead children push a line too far, and I completely agree, this part is the strongest one out there. Interesting however is fact, that nobody decided to choose “Guts” as the strong one. Its quite interesting, does the movies get used us to vision of our insides coming outside through the stomach? That’s my conclusion of this result. Maybe answer require much more in depth analysis.
Some of the asked people responded in “other” option: ” Does it matter?”, and answer is obviously yes, it matter because player is starting in protagonist room, obviously child from USA have a bit different room, than kid in Russia. Most chosen option if “England”, and I will probably change my idea here, from France to England.
Here majority of people answered “Monster take too much time”, and again I fully agree with this point of view, this is probably most seriously answered question out there. Monster will stay only a concept art then, there is no point to waste too much time on him.
In question six, people answered “YES” most commonly, which mean they are actually interested in history of this game. I need to make short research about ways the environmental artist are sneaking some history into a game.
Here results are very close to each other, I have dilemma because of this topic. Implementation of adult as playable character give me many possibilities, like a weapons for example, however a child make it extremely creepy in my opinion, everything look so big from his perspective, well I am probably going to stay with idea of child protagonist, at least for now.
In this question I gave people four options, and lucky for me, nobody skipped it. Result are extremely close on each option, average in around 4 point something on each. Thing is, answers from this question doesn’t mean anything, I am still going to use everything that came to my head.
I am not going to examine other answers, results are good, “TV” option won, as I want, which mean I am definitely going to have portal in my TV.
In last question I gave people option to rate this game idea. Average is 5, which is not satisfying for me, and I am going to rethink some of the choices I made.
In conclusion, I majority of people agree with some of my statements, not I need to only re think amount of gore I want to implement in my game.
Game Design 