Final build for my survival horror themed level.

For my game I want to use modular assets to add to the theme of the game. I want the level to be somewhat remenisant of a modern day labryinth without all the twists and turns that would endlessly frustrate players. Reusing certain assets will make the player feel lost are stuck giving them a small sense of hopelessness as they progress through the underground base.

For this level I want to draw a lot of characteristics from horror movies and suspenseful games. Games like System Shock 2 and Amnesia capture the feeling of dread I want players to feel. Rage by id captures the post-apocalyptic feeling I want the level to have.

Jonathan Decelle

IMGD 3500

Story Concept

The story for this level and world has been told before in some ways. The world is a dark and desolate place. Nuclear war and the destruction of fresh water supplies have left the land and water ruined.  People are struggling to find food, water, to survive. This is a dangerous world where bandits are rampant and only the strong or those that work together can survive. But there are always anomalies in a world like this, people that manage to tough it out on their own and create a world for themselves. Somehow with all the bandits these strange people manage to make their way in the world despite how dangerous it is. These people are always intriguing and tend to have secrets. In this case the nomad we are looking at has terrible secrets hidden beneath his home in the middle of the wasteland. Networks of tunnels with horrible sights run beneath the quaint shack that sits on top of the land.

The player in this game is a person simply looking for help surviving. The group the player was with is gone killed by bandits and the bandits won’t stop until the player is dead. Left with nowhere else run the player burst into the beat down shack that stands mysteriously by itself. The runs in and finds it is not empty. A lone man sits at a table a gun next to his chair. The main calmly rises grabs his gun and moves towards the window. The player hears a hail of bullets as his vision starts to fade and he passes out.  The player comes to sitting up at the table while the man from before takes a sip from a mug. The man offers the player a drink which the player gladly accepts. After some conversation the player once again slips into unconsciousness this time realizing his drink has been drugged.

The player now finds himself at the bottom of an extensive network of tunnels as a prisoner of the loner in the wasteland. Our player has survived for this long in the wasteland which says a lot about his ability to survive, but is by no means a seasoned warrior. Somehow he’s scavenged his way and survived, but this is a completely different situation. He now finds himself in the clutches of a sadistic disturbed individual. Grotesque horrific sights line the walls of this maze of tunnels that lie beneath the home.

Art Style

The art style the game will be very dark. The outside world is extremely desolate with lots of flushed out colors oranges, yellows, grays. Inspiration for the wasteland will be drawn from post-apocalyptic settings like The Road Warrior, and Rage. Underneath in the tunnels beneath it is dark and dank. It’s a disturbing area that has been filled with years of horrifying acts, which terrify the main character. For the theme and art style I want to take cues from horror movies over the years. Movies like America Psycho or Silence of the Lambs have sets that are truly horrifying conceptually and visually. The player will feel alone and desperate, as they struggle through numerous tunnels filled with the horrifying experiments created there. The underground dungeon will be a mix of natural caverns and futuristic tunnels.