Echoes Beneath

Making areas play and feel different by utilizing different spacial parameters

Scripting a game from scratch using Blueprint, including a monster AI

Learning how to guide players without using a UI by using landmarks

Goals & Learnings

After recently playing Amnesia: The Dark Descent, I wanted to try making my own small horror game. The game is set on a remote, frozen plain, where players find themselves lost and hunted by an invisible monster.

#level_design

Levels that evoke emotions

This project quickly became a learning experience in level design, requiring me to research how to guide players in an "open world" using landmarks. I also experimented with evoking different emotions during different stages of the game by leveraging the spatial parameters of the environment. The first section is extremely open, designed to make players feel as though they could be watched from every angle, while the second takes place in a claustrophobic mineshaft, where they never knew what might be lurking around the next corner.

#scripting

Creating a horror game in unreal engine

Besides teaching me a great deal about game design, this project was also the first complete game I created in Unreal Engine. I scripted everything myself from scratch, including player movement, interactables, and core game systems. I also developed the AI for the monster hunting the player, giving it two distinct behavior patterns depending on the player’s current location. All of this was implemented using Blueprints.

#environment_art

Visuals that complement the level

Since this was a solo project, I also handled the set dressing of the environments, creating assets where needed, such as for the tunnels and the sides of the snowy plain. I aimed to complement the level layouts by giving the exterior a natural, restrained look, while designing the interior of the mineshaft to feel cramped and abandoned.