Before I made the actual final scene I produced a test concept to see if the idea could work and how large I needed to make the play area so that it felt natural to move about it as well as how dense to make the obstacles. I also used this an opportunity to experiment with the lighting and different object materials so that I could understand if it was too reflective or not tiled enough.
After testing this level for a while I came to decide that the scene was far too small and the experience wasn't long enough. I liked the use of the side lighting and the elongated shadows so I made sure to use that in the remake of the scene seen below:
Though most of the details changed the lighting elements from the test remained relatively similar even if they became more detailed and realistic. The layout was altered slightly but the game mechanic and gameplay didn't, the player was still forced to move through the scene while the lightning flashed providing a short length of time that you could see some of your surroundings.
I planned to use the sounds below within my scene:
-Neutral monster sounds
-Monster sounds movement
-Thunder
-Rain
-Footsteps
-Breathing
-Heartbeat
-Door open quickly
-Door slammed shut
-Monster jumpscare sound
After playing about with the audio I came to realise that there was too much noise that ruined the atmosphere of the scene so I decided it would be best to remove any sound that could clutter the scene. I programmed a thunder sound to be triggered after a random delay after the lightning flashes, this sound would be randomly be selected out of 3 possible thunder sound clips.
I looked into how sound was used during the Vietnam war to weaken the morals of the Viet Cong soldiers and strike fear within them so that they become psychologically broken. This was called Operation Wandering Ghosts:
I considered using chromatic aberation to represent the strength of danger you were in. The greater the affect of the chromatic aberation the greater the danger the player is in. It would be a visual reminder of the danger the player faces even when they can't see it.
-Interactive sounds caused by the player:
-Bumps into chair
-Randomly generated chair sound
-Bumps into table
-Randomly generated table sound
-The colour table (UST-) was used to create a more blue tinted scene so that the lightning flashes of white would not be so harsh.
-Slow movement as to not make a sound and drag out the gameplay - building tension.
In relation to the research I conducted on lighting I ended up not using many of these techniques. There was one example of back-lighting used in the second room, the same light sources were used to create elongated shadows due to the angle that they projected the light at. Overall I would say that the quality of the scenes were high and looked unsettling and eerie, however I believe my work failed to produce any actual fear or suspense, this is mainly due to the fact that there isn't any actual real or impending threat towards the player. There is no fear on what the next doorway holds because there is no reason to think that there could be anything out there.
-Fear of the unknown isn't enough to powerfully scare someone.
-First I should have identified a threat so that the player has the knowledge that there is a legitimate danger in the first place.
From a visual stand point the game creates a strong example of unnerving imagery.
Below is a video displaying the final outcome of the game that I created within a few days:
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