Challenges met while designing this mechanic

Nowadays, tank controls aren't very popular but in order to emulate great horror games of the past from the PS1 era and to help the player accomodate to the angles of the camera changing from scene to scene, we decided to implement this control scheme.

• Rotation of the character is dependent on the number of presses on the D-Pad

  • Solution: lock it with Delta Seconds to ensure a smooth and consistent turn rate!

• Make it feel good to modern audiences: it feels better to use tank controls with a D-Pad, but some players prefer using the Left Stick. I made sure in testing that it felt good regardless of the preference chosen by the player.

• Slow and heavy, smooth to play: playing with bad tank controls can feel sluggish, therefore I made sure to tweak the controls until they felt just right, it never feels unfair to move around in our game, the player will be able to escape death, mostly...!

Challenges met while designing the 3Cs and the overall game feel

How to have the game feel like a TV Show? We decided early on to implement fixed camera angles as well as special cameras that could follow the player or present special views as if the cameras were infiltrated everywhere: the peephole of a door, behind grates, even a drone following the player around from the sky!

• In order to accentuate this aesthetic, I designed different post-process materials to apply to some of the cameras to give them a "retro" CRT aesthetic, like security cameras.

• We also used low-poly PS1 style assets for our game, but I wanted to push the look even more. I applied a pixelization post-process that resizes the resolution in accordance to the view that the game is currently showing.

• When tweaked with film grain and the overall exposure of the cameras and combining the pixelization post-process to the CRT like post-process, it "cleaned" the image just enough to give it that old-school PS1 look that I was aiming for!

• For Hedge Maze level, a top down view is used to help the player navigate the maze. To immitate a drone hovering a few feet above the player, there is a slight lag that is introduced so the camera goes to where the player was about a second ago as well as hovering slightly up and down as if it's adjusting itself in the air.

Challenges met while designing the Melee Combat System

How to have a feeling of freshness in a game where there is only melee combat?

• Early on I decided to opt for melee only for our combat system and since enemies cannot be killed, only stunned, it created another problem. How to keep the tension high at all times if the player could only stun-lock enemies and move on?

• Weapons have durability! In our game, the four main types of weapons a player can find are balanced. Light blunt or slashing weapons are fast, cause less damage and are more resistant. Heavy blunt or slashing weapons are slower, cause more damage but will break faster. Attacks made with "X" are considered light.

• We also wanted a risk and reward mechanic. That's when I designed that in a moment's panic, a player can "sacrifice" their current weapon by guaranteeing a stun attack using "Y" on a controller for a Heavy Attack.

• Some weapons are light enough to be thrown also, though once thrown, the weapon is lost and acts as an automatic stun attack.

But won't this feel stale after a while? Not so, we designed items that create opportunity and strategy in a tight spot!

• The Strenght Booster item doubles the damage input of any weapon for a short amount of time while retaining the original weapons' durability.

• The Repair Item allows weapons to regain some durability in order to keep it usable.

All in all, the overall Melee Combat System is designed to be engaging, while keeping tension high between players and the enemies roaming the levels but cannot be a tool relied upon constantly for survival!