Game Design 1

Github: https://github.com/cjay0316/GameDesign1

Game we are currently making in my Game Design 1 course at Wichita State University.

08-21-25 Update: The goal was to create a new area using existing assets. In the new area the player must find the key to the door to escape. I designed the new area to be accessible by climbing over the wall and falling into the room. For the player to get out of the room they must overcome the falling platforms to reach the hidden key. I chose the falling platforms so that way the player doesn't die upon death and they can use the near by ramps to climb back up to the falling platforms. The hope is that the player will find it less annoying because they aren't dying. 

Midterm Project: Our requirements for the Midterm project was to create a small stealth game/level using the assets we have been learning and making since the start of the semester. I added a screen shot of my 2D layout for the game/level. My goal was to create a scary/horror game. Where the player is tasked with escaping the island where inmates were tested on and mutated. The night night our lucky reporter is there to investigate these rumors the asylum inmates have broken out and taken control of the island. The goal is to create a tense environment at night to bring more of a scary feeling. I wanted the orange lights in the buildings and courtyard to give the player the spooky vibes, but also leave a few different color lights to help guide the player. The player isn't able to fight back (like Outlast) and has to sneak around to find keys to doors and evade enemies. The player is able to crouch, dash, and use throwable distractions to trick and evade the enemies. I want the player to feel like they are able to out smart the enemy using these abilities. I also wanted to give the player enough space in the environment that it was believable as a island, but also to give the player room to play with the abilities so they feel like they can master their abilities so that they can use it to traverse the environment, get past obstacles, and get away from the enemy. The enemies have sound and sight perception to target the player as they patrol the grounds. When the enemy finds the player it will go from walking to running so they chase them down and attack them when close enough. IF the player is clever enough the enemy can lose track of the player and return to patrolling the grounds. I wanted there to be "breaks" between the tension so the player feels a sense of accomplishment and a moment to relax  and prepare before getting into more horror. I wanted to start the player off with tension of having to avoid a enemy in tight halls while trying to find the way out. I also wanted to have a part of the game where the player can feel even more tension (a sorta climax in the story if you will) where not only do they have to evade the enemy and look for a key, but also have to deal with not burning to death in a building. Then lastly right when the player thinks they made it to safety they have to deal with the issues of a old run down pier. The falling platforms in the pier aim to give the player a chance to master the running and jumping mechanics to make it to the end. In hopes of giving them a "earned their freedom" feeling. 

Play testing: I added the killing floors to the pier to add to the obstacle. It felt kind of mehh without it, because you could just ride the platform back to the top without any punishment. It also let me determine the height it needed to be to kill the player, but not stick it super obvious out of the water. I also changed the size of the falling platform to help it feel more like a challenge. I added different color lights and some text boxes to help guide the player, not sure it was necessary, but I think it helped. I changed the environment lighting a few times to help set the mood. I also changed the position of the player start so the player starts looking at the door and not in the corner of the room.

10-07-25 Update: Starting the Midterm Project. I created the new level, environment lighting (not the end goal lighting), changed the world settings. I also made the ground (no materials/painting yet) and did some very basic blocking out of the buildings to see how it looked size wise. Lastly I added player start.

10-09-25 Update: Using the landscape erosion tool I went around the edges of the level to give it a island shape. I also used it to form the upper level of the island. Using a block out tool I started to shape the outer walls of asylum, apartment, and lighthouse. Using the block out tool I began shaping some of the rooms in the asylum and apartments.

10-13-25 Update: Using dirt and grass materials I painted the ground. I built the pier. I put in 3 falling platforms inside the pier as a obstacle for the player. I built the stairs. I finished the lighthouse and added a blue light material to the light portion. I place 3 enemy AI around the map. I added player blocking volumes to restrict the player to the island. I added throwable distractions . Lastly I added a killing floor to act as a "fire" in a building. 

10-16-25 Update: In class we added a delete save code and assigned it to key "u". I added lights in the buildings and in the courtyard. I gave some of the lights different colors. Orange to give off a spooky vibe and blue to help guide the player in the right direction. I gave the enemy AI target points and assigned 3 target points to each enemy AI.

10-17-25 Update: I put rooftops to the buildings. I also put up railings on the lighthouse and pier. I added sewer pipes to the sides of the island too. I added a blue plane to act as water to surround the island.

10-19-25 Update: I added custom skins to the enemy AI and player characters. When changing skins i had to retarget the animations to the skins that way the skins were aligned properly. I also added some text boxes to help guide the player. I changed the size of the falling platforms to make it slightly more challenging for the player. I added a killing floor at the bottom of the pier. The killing floor is only there at the bottom of the pier to kill the player and restart from last save point. I tried to make low enough to not stick out of the water too much, but high enough to work. I changed the player start position. Lastly I changed the environment lighting to look like night time. (As of right now packaging the game does not work, working on fixing it. 

Final Project: 

10-27-25 Update: I changed the lighting in the game. In the midterm the environment lighting had more of a blue tone and didn't quite look the way I was wanting for my horror game. Using the environmental light mixture and a post process volume I was able to get the darker, creepy, and tense feeling I originally intended. I wanted the player to feel trapped on the island. By making it a dark night and the sky almost blending into the dark ocean I hope they'll feel like there's no one remotely close to help them or see what is happening on the island.

10-28-25 Update: I started adding materials from Poly Haven to my level. I also adjust the materials on the X and Y values to make them fit the objects better. I started with the asylum exterior wall, tile floors and roofing. I was looking for materials that gave an old, creepy, unmaintained, falling apart vibe to the asylum. To show the player if this how the employees take care of the building what does that mean for the patients.

10-31-25 Update: I added materials from Play Haven to the apartment building such as; exterior bricks, wood floors and a ceiling. After that adjusted them to fit the objects better. The goal of the material choice of the apartments was to show the player that the employees lived better than the patients and took better care of their homes. This just showing how little the doctors and nurses cared more about themselves rather than for their patients.

11-4-25 Update: Knowing I'll be adding or building a fire VFX for the apartments. I added a sound cue for fire. The apartment building is burning down in my level. I downloaded a fire sound, I added it to a sound cue, and then lastly changed the attenuation. I don't want the fire sound to be heard all over the map. So the goal was to give it a range that was believable and to increase or decrease in volume depending on whether the player is walking towards or away from it. I wanted the sound to be loud inside the building so the player feels like they're truly in a burning building and to give that tension of getting in and out before they burn down with it.

11-6-25 Update: In class we created and added a Niagara smoke VFX in my level. I changed the color a bit for my personal want. We gave it User Parameters; Lifetime, Noise Frequency, Noise Strength, Spawn rate, Sphere Radius, and Velocity.

11-11-25 Update: I created embers VFX from a tutorial video on Youtube and the placed the embers  in my level. I wanted to place them inside the apartments to help add to the believability of the apartments burning down. I wanted the embers to still have that fresh burning glow to them. I also added User Parameters; Box Size, Color, Lifetime Max, Lifetime Min, Maximum_Aerodynamics, Minimum_Aerodynamics, Sprite Size Max, Sprite Size Min, and Wind Speed

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11-12-25 Update: I downloaded and imported the main menu, hud, and pause menu assets from class. I woke on the main menu and changed the fonts, colors, and background image. The font I got from Dafont. I wanted to change the font style to be a bit more horror style. My goal was to use the font and the background to give the player the vibe of the game's genre.

11-16-25 Update: I added a material for my light poles. I wanted them to look rusted and weathered. I also added wooded materials for the dock.  I wanted the wood to look a bit rough. I also added that material to the falling platforms so they blend in more to the dock and may surprise the player when they fall.

11-17-25 Updated: I changed the fire attenuation fall off distance. I felt like the player had to get too close to hear it in play testing. I didnt want to sound of flames being heard across the map but i wanted it to be heard as the player got close to the steps. I also downloaded some footstep audio clips. Then I imported it into UE5.

11-18-25 Update: I downloaded materials for the outside concrete, railings, and lighthouse. I wanted the concrete to look a bit rough. I wanted the railings to look rusted and weathered like the light poles but a different color. The lighthouse I wanted to look really worn down. The goal is to show the player how the doctors and nurses truly only care about themselves and their stuff. 

11-20-25 Update: I worked on the player characters footsteps and jumping noises. I got the jumping noises from a previous import that we did in class to work but not my footsteps. I can't remember where I got the footstep sounds but it was from one of the links we used in class. The footsteps I had to use Pro Tools Intro to trim it down. I wanted the steps to sound like any old pair of shoes. I thought about making different sounds for it play randomly. I ended up not liking that for this project.

11-23-25 Update: In class we fixed my player animation blueprint to have no idling and just running. We also worked fixing my player characters footsteps. We took of a few debugging things and hid a few things like checkpoints and kill floors so when playing the player won't see them in the game. I wanted to do that early on but didnt know how. Having those debugs gone it makes the players immersion better. Which getting the player to feel immersed is one of my main goals.

11-25-25 Update: I downloaded some assets to replace my basic trees at my teachers request. I got the tree assist from Fabs. The trees fit the game the best, but icht.io has a limit. So I had to pick something small and basic. I did go with pine trees because they fit my creepy goal. I also got a better fire asset. I couldn't create the fire VFX I was wanting. I tried a few times and they looked good before scaling them in level. So out of the sake of time I got a fire asset at my teachers approval. The one I got has a bunch of different fires with different sizes and smoke. Didn't need the smoke but it was nice to have. 

12-2-25 Update: We fixed my player footsteps sounds and started working on the hud. The dash icon in the hud I got from Free Icon Library. Also I took out the footstep debug. I wanted to do that so the players feel a bit more immersion and not seeing the "left footstep" or "right footsep".

12-3-25 Update: We got the hud working but still not updating after first objective is completed. Finished the back courtyard. I added the materials and adjusted them to to fit the walls. I also finished putting all the props in place. The prop assets were given to me by my teacher. They fit the asylum theme. I wanted to keep the offices and the patients rooms pretty simple for game size purposes.

12-4-25 Update: I tried getting further with the hud but no luck. So then I jumped to working on the pause menu. I changed the fonts and added the logic for the player to press "p" to use it. We added blur in class.  Lastly I added a few props to the apartment. I didnt get a chance to but I really wanted to fog to the level to help with that horror immersion.