The Haunted;

You play as Leonard Bartholomew, a regular guy going about his daily life. However, as you are going about your day, he starts experiencing things out of the ordinary that lead to hallucinations. As the hallucinations continue, so does Leonard's paranoia. Join Leonard into finding out once for all what is going on, so his life can go back to normal. 

Controls

W/A/S/D - Movement

E - Open Shopping List

F - To Pick up Stuff and Interact

Credits

Audrey Thornal 

Designer, 3D Modeling, Sketch

Jaylen Zeng

Designer, 3D Modeling, Programmer

Naia Walter

Designer, 3D Modeling, Sketch 

Ryan Houlahan

Designer, 3D Modeling, Sketch, Programmer

Sharon Pan

Designer, 3D Modeling, Sketch, Programmer

Concepts

The general high concept of our game is that the player experiences levels of paranoia and moments of hallucinations as they do day-to-day activities. As the player is experiencing these things, they are constantly questioning what is causing them to experience these things. As the day goes on, the paranoia and hallucinations become worse and worse. The player finds out that there is something supernatural going on with them as the hallucinations become more and more vivid/real.  

This scene is supposed to be the start of the game when the hallucinations and paranoia the player is experiencing isn’t that much, but hints at the level of what the player is going to go through as the game progresses. The player is going to the grocery store (as it’s part of their normal tasks). But as the player is going through the store, there are small events that are happening that make the player question what is happening and why they are having these hallucinations. 

This is our final project for Northeastern's Level Design and Game Architecture class. These are the patterns we are using for this scene: 

• See No Evil… Yet
  • To create a sense of uncertainty throughout the level, we can obscure some of the information the player receives through the hallucinations that the character may be experiencing. This could be odd visuals like the words on a sign being distorted and difficult to read, or other things along those lines.
• It’s All In Your Head
  • This pattern can be used to make the player question what is real in a scenario, as it says that it works better in a game that has established a sort of normal feel to everything, so when odd things start happening it seems more unlikely to be true. We can use this by setting our level in a common place that people know what they look and sound like and how they feel, and then make small changes to make it all feel off somehow. These changes can be sound or visuals that just don’t match up to what is actually there.
• Absurdity of Space
  • This pattern can be used if we want to alter the space in a more noticeable way, like distorting objects in the scene or the player themselves.
• Color Me Delighted (Or Terrified) 
  • When the player gets hallucinations, this pattern can be used to show how the player is not feeling fully in their body. The environment can be toned in a different color, such as red to show danger or yellow or green to show something strange is happening.
•  It’s All In Your Head
  • This pattern discusses how creating a strange or off environment can focus attention on the character’s current state or disorient the player. They mention distorted audio, unrealistic color palettes, illogical geometry or level layout, and inconsistent lighting as ways to create an environment that seems unusual and awry.
• Beware of Darkness
  • The level designer wants to create a tense and dangerous atmosphere that the player finds himself vulnerable throughout the level. → Darkness usually means unknown and dangerous from a human perspective. By utilizing light and shadow in levels, the designer can create a tense and challenging area that makes the player feel unsafe and vulnerable. 
• Silent Storytelling
  • Using changes in sounds, lights or visuals to show a change in the situation. Altering the sounds of a grocery store could be very interesting, like slightly raising or lowering the background music to make the player feel like something is off or question if they remember it being that loud or quiet before.
• Something isn't right 
  • Disturbing things in games should be just familiar enough that the player has some sense of what they are, but not so familiar that they feel totally comfortable in their understanding.
  • Our setting is a grocery store, which is familiar to the player. By making things seem off, we can make the player feel uncomfortable