Hemo Voracity

MALUS NECESSARIUM STUDIOS

Games Team: Charbel Bouchmouny, Harlem Egen, Jacqueline Holdaway, Vincent Shiou, and William Jarman

Audio Collaborators: Ethan Gillet, Hallelujah Lantay, Nikita Heuer, Palan Surisetty, and Trent Leitch

Hemo Voracity

In ancient times, there were those that tried to spite the gods of their lands in a hunger for power. Through feeding on the blood, bodies and souls of their fellow men they were bound to the world after death. These beings were the first of the vampires. From here they spread these curses to unfortunate victims.

Lately these monsters have been abducting unlucky victims in their hunger for blood. Fortunately these victims have the protection of a guardian spirit from the land they are trapped in that is leading them to an escape.

And now find yourself in it situation. The question is, will you escape the Nosferatu?

Project

Hemo Voracity is a 1 vs. up to 9 player asymmetric survival horror game where the survivors goal is to traverse the map completing tasks to obtain a Ritual Item. This Ritual Item needs to be deposited at the Ritual Site where a Ritual to escape the Nosferatu will be performed once all Ritual Items are collected. Throughout this survivors will have to run from the Killer a Nosferatu that will attack and kill the survivors in its thirst for blood. Survivors can stun the Nosferatu using a Silver Cross which can be found throughout the map.

Process

Level Design

For the level design of Hemo Voracity we were inspired by similar games for the feel of the level as we wanted to created a dark and creepy atmosphere with the forest environment which working to make the terrain interesting. For this we started by considering the way the two different player types could move through the level particularly with the abilities of the killer while creating interesting environmental features that added depth to the level design while ensuring that the map didn't advantage either side. We started with a basic molecular diagram to figure out the pathing of the level that was used as a basis for the level layout. In this we considered the different heights of the terrain and site lines of the characters at various points in the map. We then moved into the greyboxing stage where a base of the level was craeted to give us a feel for the size of the level. From this we increased the level size as it was too small and went into texturing the terrain and adding the large rocks to add texture to the cliffs and steeper hills as well as act as the border on three side for out game. Once the texturing was done foliage was added to the game based about the terrain shape and texturing. When creating the level we knew we wanted a heavy fog to limit player vision which allowed us to create the varying heights of the map without disadvantaging the survivors which was aided by the foliage. Our goal was to create a level that allowed the players to explore while also not being to large that it would disadvantage the killer and prolong the round time.

Lighting Design

Lighting in Hemo Voracity came down to creating a certain type of ambience, one that would leave the players concerned on almost every decision they would make. To do this, we used a mix of Sky Light, Atmospheric Fog, Exponential Height Fog and Post Processing. We didn't want a game that was completely dark, so they players knew where to go, but we also didn't want everything to be visible, so with a combination of all these, we were able to create the appropriate lighting for Hemo Voracity.

UI/UX Design

For the UI design we aimed to have a minimalistic design which a limited colour pallet that mainly considered of greyscale colours which red acting as an accent colour for out game. This was designed to add to the dark feel of the game and not distract the player from the gameplay but rather add to the experience with the red being used to draw players attention to UI elements when required.

Modelling

For this project the player character models were created by a team member as part our games freemium monetisation model. Players can "buy" the models from the store page either individually or in bundles. The models are all made from a base female and base male version from which the face, clothing and hair where modelled individually to create 9 unique models for the players to play as in the game.

Meshes of each character models are around 12000-15000 polygons.

Programming

The programming for the game boast multiplayer functionality that allows between 4-10 players to enjoy a game together. The game sees two different player types with the survivor and killer roles available for the players to play as which have their own unique mechanics that allow the player to experience the thrill of the killer and tension of the survivor. Players are able to play different survivors which are available for "purchase" in the in-game store.

2 different player modes, survivor and vampire.
Task system for survivor.
Ability system for vampire.
Minimap system for survivor and vampire.
Multiplayer mode.

Collaborative Work

This trimester we had the opportunity to work with audio students where they created all the audio for our game. This started with an audio aesthetics pitch to the students who from there used an audio list made by the team and created the audio based on the descripts and inspirations provided.