Abandoned (itch) (Mahdis)

Genre: First Person, Horror, Puzzle

Benchmarks: P.T, Outlast, Alien Isolation, Resident Evil

Assets: Hospital Horror Pack, Top-Down Graveyard

The players find themselves in an abandoned hospital. They realize this, by exploring the area around them and interacting with the objects surrounding them. The focus of this game is on the atmosphere and audio. With the ambient music playing in the background, the heartbeat, and breathing sounds, a spooky and mysterious environment is created. The goal of the game is to solve the puzzles such as find the keys in each level and abandon the hospital.

How to play:

In game use "1" for flashlight and "2" for Geiger counter. "Shift" to run and "spacebar" to jump. "F" to turn the flashlight on and off.

Ambience:

Aside from the background music, the players can hear their own footsteps. The aim is to make the players feel abandoned and alone in this hospital. Interaction with some objects serve the purpose of solving the puzzles. Unique layers of sound have been added for each interaction. As an example, by getting close to a radio, the players can hear the sound of old radio tuning and the further away the players are this sound vanishes.

Player Feedback:

As mentioned before, the players have to solve either one up to three puzzles in each level in order to be able to proceed in the game. Once the puzzles are solved, aside from the visual feedback, the players also receive audio feedback for the completed puzzles. The audio feedback is synced with the type of puzzles that are solved, such as picking up a key, hearing Morse code, switching the light on or off.

Items/Enemies:

The Players have two important items in his inventory, namely a flashlight with a simple on/off clicking and a ghost detector. The ghost detector adds a substantial atmosphere next to our Music. It extends the tension of the players with its constant clicking noise of a Geiger-counter but getting closer to our threats makes the noise louder, puts the pitch higher, and lets them hear the breathing of their nearby threat, as well as their own heartbeat.

Music Style:

We use a slow orchestral score with ambient elements with the goal to create a thick atmosphere. The players should feel uneasy and intimated. Instrumentation consists of evolving drone sounds to fill out the lows and strings at the highs with an eerie solo violin playing the lead melody. Our main theme implements the concept of buildup and release with constant automation on parameters like volume and filters to keep tension high and make the piece feel alive. Both the violins and strings are playing slightly out of tune to make the listener feel uncomfortable - exactly how we want our players to feel as they make their way through the hospital.

Musical references:

Our sound is inspired from orchestral game soundtracks like “Outlast” and “Alien: Isolation” with their creepy strings and classical instrumentation, while also using elements from less instrumental horror movie scores like “The Conjuring”. In particular the evolving drone sounds are a stylistic device often used in horror media of all kinds.

Recording:

Our main theme was produced and recorded digitally with plugins like Omnisphere and Xpand! in the DAW Ableton 11.

Implementation:

We have one main theme, that is composed in such a way that it can be looped seamlessly without the listener noticing the transition. Through all our levels we use the same track, continuing through loading times and pause screens, with the intention to never break immersion and keep the player engaged.

This game was created as part of a university project by: 

Mahdis Sabzevarzadeh 

Samuel Saruba

Dominik Urban

Puxuan Wang