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Platform: PC

Role: Game Designer

Team Size: 3

Creeper

A vicious serial killer is on the loose and you have to stop him. You managed to sneak into his basement and must now piece together video evidence and report it to the police.

 

But be careful! If you render the videos in the wrong order 4 times, you will be caught by the killer.

Contributions & Outcomes

  • The game was downloaded over 2000 times and received overwhelmingly positive reviews

  • Modeled and textured all 3D assets in the game

  • Programmed small interaction systems in the scene (eg: interacting with notes)

  • Designed a random occurrence system that enhanced the game's scary atmosphere

  • Contributed to the filming of in-game movies

Challenges

  • Creating a new type of horror game

  • Designing a creepy atmosphere with a fixed player position

  • Ensuring that players experience ups and downs during gameplay

  • Making a horror game in just a week

Challenges

A more detailed breakdown of my design processes and techniques can be found here:  Creeper White Paper

Design

Research was first step as we had to find out what people liked in horror games. This included playing popular games such as Five Nights at Freddy's and Slenderman. 

Design

The basic idea is that the player has to place 8 clips (from a set of 10) in the correct sequence and render the video. They will only be able to watch a clip by clicking on a video tape that's placed in the scene. The player only has 3 tries to complete this task. If all clips are placed in the correct sequence and rendered, the evidence is collected and the killer is captured. If not, the player is captured by the killer.

Creeper Basic Flow@2x (2).png

Testing

Once the game was in a playable state, we hosted multiple small playtest sessions. All playtesters found the experience enjoyable and gave us valuable feedback. There were 2 things almost everyone mentioned:

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  • They did not know what to do once they were in the scene

  • The found the atmosphere dull and boring

Testing

Iteration

Following the feedback, I decided to add a small note in the scene with instructions on how to play the game. In the next playtest session, all testers remarked that they found the note very helpful.

Iteration
instgif.gif

Gif: Player clicking on the note

As for the atmosphere, I created a random occurrence system that activated the sound of footsteps at random moments during the gameplay. To create a more creepy environment, I also added a mechanic where the lights would randomly turn off, making the player anxious.

lights.PNG

Image: Scene when the lights are turned off

What did I learn from this?

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  • Researching popular media for inspiration and data collection 

  • Playtesting to iron out issues and design mechanics that would improve the player experience

  • Creation of dynamic event systems that take the player on a roller coaster ride of emotion

  • Developing an atmosphere for horror game that would make most players uneasy

  • Creating a short movie is fun! 

Outcomes

Gameplay

Want to play the game? 

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