PROJECT ASYLUM
CONCEPT
Core Gameplay Mechanic
We wanted to make a horror game that was more than a walking simulator so we introduced a UV light as an alternative to a torch. That provided us with the opportunity to create puzzles and messages that could only be discovered by switching between the lights.
CONTRIBUTION
Biggest Contribution
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Player path & Floorpan
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Pacing
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Paper prototyping puzzles
Player path & Floorplan
Blockout
I worked with another level designer to create a fitting floor plan for the house where the rooms were placed in a way that made the most sense to us. As the layout was going to be used as a map for the player as well, I drew it as a blueprint and used white filled lines to indicate which rooms were accessible.
Player path
Whether a room would be traversable by the player or not was decided by the assets that would be needed for each room. To avoid overworking the artists, we prioritised the assets that could be reused in multiple rooms and then locked the rooms which had non-reusable assets.
What happens where?
When creating the pacing, I heavily relied on the narrative I had written for the game. I had taken inspiration from a real pre-demolition checklist that I had found online and created objectives based on what was included on that list. One of the tasks was to check for gas, so I wrote a narrative where the character believes that the scary things happening around them might be hallucinations caused by a gas leak. To make this suspicion believable I had to start the game off with our smallest scares and then gradually make things scarier.
Pacing
Paper prototype puzzles
UV based puzzles
Originally the UV light was a random item we wanted to add to the game but because it was an interesting addition to a walking simulator, I wrote it into the narrative more which naturally made it into our Core Game Mechanic.
REFLECTION
Working on Project Asylum was a very meaningful experience. I got to explore a new way of leading a project that encouraged open, and transparent communication, leading to team members becoming close and working closely on tasks together. I wanted to put the health of the team first so the project had a strong focus on dynamically adjusting workload and prioritising what the team considered fun.
From a design perspective, I learned a lot as well. I got to collaborate with most of the designers in their respective fields and it greatly expanded my understanding of the challenges each designer faces and how they might approach solving those problems.
Overall I am happy with what we accomplished as a team. Even though we lost almost half of our members 4 weeks into production and only had one full time programmer, we found ways to get around it and ship a great product.
If you'd like to see my other contributions to the project, you can find those below!