I made a supernatural thriller game demo for a game jam, and in this first Devlog, I'll provide a small update on how I made the game, what I used, and how it all went.

RAVENRIFT is a first-person supernatural thriller created for the Ryan Laley Games Fall Jam 2023. The theme was 'You are the monster,' so I planned to craft an unstable superhero imprisoned and escaped, wreaking havoc, and absorbing the life force of her adversaries to heal.

Mechanics:

The jam's duration was less than 5 days, and I could only work on the project after regular working hours. So I made a plan including breaking tasks into manageable chunks and following through with them. The game design remained intentionally simple, given this was my first game jam submission, and I just didn't want to plan something big and miss the due date. 

The gameplay is simple,  first-person movement, interaction with objects, and telekinetic blasts, which kill experimenters in a few blows. After killing them, players could absorb their life energy to regain health. The character's vulnerability, even with superpowers, introduced balance; moving and attacking drained health, emphasized by the indicated by health bar top of the screen. Players couldn't merely attack and move but had to utilize corpses for healing.

Story:

For the story, the goal is to create a simple plot with text dialogue prompts to convey it on the screen. Essentially, the story narrates how one day, security systems malfunctioned, doors unlocked, and Raven, the main character, was contacted by a mysterious character. This character guided Raven through the level in search of an escape route. Additional dialogues were incorporated to provide context to the scenario. The initial plan was to record voice notes and modify them, but my voice didn't convey the mysterious or eerie quality I needed, so I integrated them as an element within the level, adding some extra depth to the environment.

Environment:

The original plan included a level challenging players to move strategically and use the power wisely to meet the objectives, but I spent too much time on first-person animations, with the time I had left I made a simple and easy-to-navigate level. For the game's environment, I used an Unreal Marketplace asset named 'Modular Research Facility,' which provided all the assets I required. 

Inspiration for the environment design was drawn from the movie The Girl with All the Gifts (2016), and the level design was inspired by the secret research facility scenario in Stranger Things season 4. For the colours and post-effects, I got some inspiration from the 'Loki' series, which uses a slightly undersaturated palette with just two or three primary colours. Although the result wasn't quite what I expected, I'm happy with the results.

Process:

The development began with the development of game mechanics, creating a first-person camera and movement mechanics. I found a walkthrough using Metahuman as a base for movement and using Control Rig within Unreal Engine to animate the character, a convenient and surprisingly easier way to create animations for an amateur animator like myself. For attack and absorption mechanics, I applied some simple techniques like FOV changes, camera shake, particle effects and sounds to add some nice feel when using the powers.

Enemies

As for the enemies, the original plan involved creating guards armed with guns, but this didn't align with the theme or the time constraints. Instead, I made a simple AI that runs away from the player when spotted. The result is serviceable maybe goofy at times, offering limited challenge. Nevertheless, I believe it suits the theme. I used Mixamo to get enemy character models and animations.

Final touch-up:

To complete the project, I added background music, alarm sounds, and door-opening sound effects. I made a quick UI to make the game function as a fully-fledged gaming experience. The UI is only based on a single Logo design template I found in Freepik. Used Photoshop and Figma to create the images.

Assets I used in the demo:

• Main Character: MetaHuman Creator
• Enemy Character & Animations: Mixamo
• Environment Asset Pack: 4 IN 1 Modular Research Facility - UE Marketplace
• Background Music & SFX: Pixabay
• UI & Logo Graphics: Faded text effect (freepik.com)

What's Next:

My goal is to create narrative-driven, immersive indie games. As a relatively new game designer, this experience has been invaluable, and I'm thinking about working on this project to add refinements and make it into a proper demo in the future.