TAKE A DEEP BREATH
Lead Game and Environment Artist
Initially, this was planned for an ongoing game jam our team decided to participate in. After the jam, we decided to continue development on this project and polish out the game for a proper release. For this project, I was primarily responsible for Game design, Environment art, documentation for programmer and Asset creations.
GAMEPLAY VIDEO
PROJECT BREAKDOWN
Project Goals
Our team's primary goal during this game was to complete the game within a tight deadline of 3 Days.
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After we successfully completed the build for the jam, we decided to pursue the game ahead and release a playable demo for the game.
Primary Responsibilities
Design
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Designing the rooms for the level.
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Writing the dialogues for the level.​
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Making a list of level props.
Other Responsibilities
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Managing the timelines and the team.
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Making small assets.
Design
Design
Moral choices
In an academic study conducted by researchers, it was found that moral reasoning diminished when people's identity were not exposed. To test this theory, we made this project.
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Players were explicitly told about the outcomes in a room.
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Players had an option to either press the button (bad choice) or do nothing and move to next room (good choice)
Player's choices were rewarded based on the choices they made throughout the game. Ending room were different based on the number of right and wrong decisions they made in the rooms.
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Good ending: When the player did not press the button for majority of the rooms, it led them to getting a "Thank you for participating message."
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Bad ending: When the player pressed the button for majority of the rooms, it led them to a room where he was shot as a "payment for their sins."
Environment Art
This was the first time that I was trying to set up an environment in Unreal Engine 5. Since this was for a game jam, I proceeded with a very minimalist and simple room setup. There's a glass, behind which the test subject is. A flashing light, to signify the voice line being played and a button to make the choice.
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As the player progressed, the rooms became more dim and filled with blood stains. This was done to make the player feel discomfort and evoke their moral compass while making choices.
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As the rooms progressed, the models behind the glass changes from Simple dummies to realistic dummies with screams of their own, to appeal to the player's moral compass.
Left image is the first room and right image is fifth room. Notice the dimmer lights and blood splatters on the right image.
For the rooms, I took major inspiration from Back room type games, where very simple looking rooms were used to make the player feel uneasy at all times.
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There are a total of 9 rooms, and 1 room for the ending. The doors were all one-way, to signify that some choices once made, cannot be reversed.