YEAR 1, WEEK 12 - Trapped - 04.05.2020
APPROACH:
Is I start to learn more and more of the application I'm working in (origin) In conversations with Maria and others, I realize that wanting a functioning polished game is just to goal oriented, and what I need for this project to be successful is not to make it good (WHICH I DESPERATELY WANT) but to learn how I can make something scary while having a strong narrative backbone (which I desperately need) and with all humor aside, my interest in horror isn't having polished well-designed market-ready games, (yet) it's figuring how to make them and make them well. so with that, I started writing out some aspects of my project that I've been ignoring, which is actually the writing.
CHOICES:
so I spent some time actually working this games narrative while watching some tutorials on how to make specific things happen in unity.
Spine of story small flavor text
“For whatever reason, you and your friends decided to play the midnight game on a camping trip, and one by one your friends began to vanish in the shadows until it was just you left all alone in the woods, surrounded by the sound of nature, and….something else, can you make it to the end of the night? Or will you suffer the same fate as your friends?”
You are stuck in the middle of the forest, after being chased by a monster in the shadows you find yourself in a small clearing that feels safer than most places. But you can hear it, small snaps of twigs and gently rustling of leaves on the forest floor that cut into the natural noises of the forest. Aimin your dying flashlight, you banish away what you feel to be the same monster but only for a short while.
Gamification elements
Goal = Survive until daylight
Challenge = budget battery life of your flashlight (wait could it be a phone? No batteries wouldn’t work ) (MAYBE YOUR DEAD FRIENDS PHONES?? PART OF IT COULD BE FINDING OUT THEIR PASSWORDS SO YOU CAN LIVE LONGER ←- too big for this project)
choices = using the light to stay safe/ not using it in a specific time to preserve the lifespan
Game flow
A player stays in a small circular area in virtual darkness with only a moon to light their surroundings. 3D sound will be triggered by a monster that is stalking the player just outside their field of vision in the dark. The player will have 2 abilities turning on a flashlight to see in the dark and remove the monster from the area, and reloading the light with another battery. In order to win the player must make it to the morning where the sun will finally keep them safe from what lurks in the shadows.
What does the creator have to do
How to keep the player in circle - bounding box? Make everything outside threatening or hurtful?
Control flashlight - use oculus controls to click a flashlight on and off
GUI for light life see if dimming light works better
Surround sound - figure this out
Turning with joystick - optional, do not focus on this
Mapping controls to the game
process
Make a Cube fps
Do unities first-person shooter tutorial
B are bones prototype standing in space- using a flashlight on cubes to make them disappear
Stalled resources
Abbey, joe chambers, Shadrick. Unity questions
REFERENCES:
so because I know more specifically what I need to make my game work as far as functioning controls.
simple flashlight controls
flashlights for horror
3d sound in unity
ammo and reloading
CURRENT QUESTIONS AND THE WEEK AHEAD:
My current thoughts are actually can I actually find scripts that have been made and shared already so I don't need to start from scratch? I've learned that this is too show that a concept is possible not that I know everything inside and out (yet) so that would cut away at a lot of time.
other questions would be about actually how can I actually make something feel scary, and I've actually started answering that question this week, I've started studying a new game (resident evil 3 remake) and logging their good choices, and analyzing why the choices felt good.
but as my time is limited I can't just study I must make! and that's the goal if the upcoming week, making game where a person points a light at a box and makes it die. and then applying 3D sound.