Horror Level Design

    Development Blog Week 4 - Horror Level Design Hello, welcome back to Week 4 of my Horror Level Design development blog. This week I have continued to work on the level design blockout. I have been creating the upper level of the hospital using the level design plan I have previously created. I have made minor tweaks to the plan, however it is still staying true to the layout. I firstly started with creating the upper walls that surround the reception. In the level design layout I have created I decided that I wanted the upper level to be able to view down into the reception. This allows room for world events as I plan for the player to look from the 1st floor down into the reception and then force them into investigating  the area. After this, I decided to start work on both the Men and Women's Shower rooms. I decided to make them the same size as it will allow for a symmetrical layout of the inside of the room. I have currently only decided to blockout the outer...

  Development Blog Week 3 - Horror Level Design Hello and welcome to Week 3 of my Horror Level Design development blog. This week I have been busy finishing up research and development and starting to create the first floor of the asylum.  Firstly I created a level pacing chart and decided upon the location of world events. The gameplay I have decided upon is inspired by Outlast and therefore there will be scripted jump scares, audio and VFX that the player will encounter. I will create this in a way so that it is immersive but also helps to give the level unique elements. I have decided to move into the production side of the project a week early as this will give me plenty of time to create my proposed project. After ending the production stage I then proceeded to create a new project within Unreal Engine 4. I then installed a plugin to assist with easily creating the level design blockout using the plans I have previously made. This plugin allows easy scaling of geometry an...

  Development Blog Week 2 - Horror Level Design Hello and welcome back to Week 2 of my Horror Level Design development blog. This week I am continuing on the Research and Development of this project. ' The premise of the game is that the player is an urban explorer that has received a suspicious text message containing coordinates accompanied by the message "FIND US". The player finds that the coordinates are in a remote woodland outside of Liverpool, England. The player starts the game in a cutscene and parks outside of the asylum. They then gain access to the building but they are suddenly overwhelmed by a strong sense of doubt and fear. The door then locks and noises and screams can be heard from within. The what was thought to be abandoned mental hospital isn't abandoned at all... ' This gives a backstory on how the player ended up here and helps to immerse the player into the world. Having this backstory also helps me to create the level around it as I am abl...

Development Blog Week 1 - Horror Level Design Hello and welcome to the first week of my development blog. This blog will be updating you on my weekly progression of the horror themed level I will be creating. Some weeks may have multiple updates that will indicate my progression. Firstly, I decided to look into the sort of theme I wanted to create my horror level around. I am deciding to go with an abandoned mental hospital as even though it is a popular theme amongst this genre, it still allows for great level design due to the types of rooms and constrained space available. I decided to create a moodboard consisting of images from hospitals and abandoned buildings that help to give an understanding of the type of scale and theme I am wanting to create. I looked at the interior of these buildings and it can be seen that the rooms are small and contain long corridors within. I then looked at the exterior of these buildings as I may possibly create an outdoor section that the player...