An online 2-player coop survival horror game developed using Unity3D for PC and Mac.
Horror Stories was developed as the senior project for a team of 7 UCSC Game Design students. All of our 2D and 3D art assets were created by our art team of 15 fellow UCSC students. The project started as 1 of 75 game pitches at the beginning of the year, and triumphed through numerous green-light cuts and redesigns throughout the year to become the winner of Grand Prize Award for 2014 Sammy Awards.
Overview
A documentary crew goes into a dystopian city ran by a cult call the “Bird Song”. The cult’s goals are to gain positive publicity by allowing a team to put a film together depicting all of the “positivity” in the city. While the documentary crew is there, a purge begins of all life inside the city along with an awakening of evil demons. Players play as a two person evacuation crew that has come to pick up the documentary crew. They must search the ruined city in hopes that their team members are still alive. Players will see the world differently through the use of multiple perspectives and the environment around them will change because of environment reconfiguration. Additionally, there will be enemies that players must stealthily avoid. They must work together in order to survive.
Project links
The game is strictly for two players, so in order to play; the game must be installed on two computers and connected through the in-game lobby.
Horror Stories Trailer
Horror Stories Presentation at the UCSC Sammy Awards
Roles and Contributions
Lead Designer
As the design lead, I coordinated with everyone on the team in order to develop a cohesive gameplay experience. I worked in tandem with the project leads to create production schedules, hold meetings, and oversee weekly playtests. I designed the core mechanics and dynamics of the game, as well as advising system programmers throughout the project.
Events Programmer
A dynamic event system was created that uses triggers and event scripts to craft gameplay. Triggers can be made to detect player position or interaction, AI events, or by other triggers. Events are all the things that make up gameplay, such as spawning AI, flashes of the past, world shifting, and any other customized events. I used this system to set up all the levels with puzzles and gameplay events.
UI and Feature Programmer
I helped design and implement several systems in order create a more rewarding play experience, such as the Document and Objective Systems. The Document System allows players to read documents found throughout the world. The Objective System uses onscreen notifications to tell the player their goals, and can be triggered to update based on the players interaction with the game world.
Level Designer
I designed all of the levels of Horror Stories to support the investigation narrative of the game. Players walk through a deserted ramshackle network of buildings where a cult had recently lived. They discover what happened to the cult by discovering artifacts and documents, as well as experiencing flashes of the past.
I supported the lead artist with drawings and prototype unity levels and then collaborated to nail down the best ways to utilize the space to support the aesthetic goals of a horror game.
Narrative Designer
I developed a rich narrative for the game which is 80% historical reference to actual events, and 20% supernatural embellishments. In order to bring the world to life, I consulted almost every artist about the types of objects and terrors that should be in the environment, as well as how they should look and behave. I also wrote all the documents found throughout the world to help immerse players in the story.
Additional Materials
Early proof of concept gameplay trailer
Andrew Truman Neff 