A stealth-driven journey where a grieving Iranian boy escapes the grey reality of WWII into the vibrant gold of Persian legends. But the debt must be paid: the longer he hides in the myths of heroes, the faster his trauma manifests as the ink-black nightmares of Zoroastrian demons. This is a story about family, love and grief.

Project Pride | PERSIAN CORRIDOR 

THE VISION

Persian Corridor is a 3D third-person stealth-narrative adventure that explores the "untold history" of WWII Iran through the eyes of Kurosh, a grieving boy. It is a game about the cost of escapism, where the hero’s journey into the Shahnameh (Persian Mythos) is both his greatest weapon and his most dangerous addiction.

CORE GAMEPLAY LOOP: THE "Q" SYSTEM

The game revolves around a high-stakes risk/reward mechanic that represents Kurosh's mental state:

• Grey Reality (Normal): Authentic stealth gameplay. Steal medicine and rations from occupying forces. High tension, limited resources.

• Golden Myth (Easy): Press Q to escape into a sun-drenched fantasy. Kurosh becomes a hero of legend. Enemy AI sight-cones shrinks, and he gains the strength to bypass physical barriers.

• The Debt (Hard): Time is the currency. Every second spent in the "Golden Myth" must be repaid in the "Ink Nightmare." If Kurosh overstays his welcome in the fantasy, the nightmare time doubles. In this state, soldiers become monstrous Daevas, and the environment becomes a lethal, distorted trap.

NARRATIVE PILLARS

1. The Fractured Family: The story is driven by two brothers representing stages of grief: Darius (Denial), Kaveh (Anger), and Kurosh (Bargaining).

2. Cultural Resilience: Persian mythology is integrated as a psychological coping mechanism, not just window dressing.

3. Historical Gravity: Set against the backdrop of the "Bridge of Victory," highlighting the civilian struggle, starvation, and the occupation of Northern Iran.

UNIQUE SELLING POINTS (USPs)

• The "Debt" Mechanic: A unique twist on the stealth genre that forces players to manage a "time-budget" of safety vs. horror.

• Untold History: One of the first major indie titles to focus exclusively on the Iranian civilian experience during WWII.

• Visual Duality: A striking contrast between desaturated 1940s realism and the vibrant, "tile-pattern" aesthetic of Persian art.

PRODUCTION & BUSINESS PLAN

Engine: Unreal Engine 5 (Targeting "Mid-Potato" optimisation for accessibility).

Team: Led by yours truly... Scaling to a strike-team of <7 specialists.

Budget Targets: 

• £20K (Alpha): Core mechanics and Vertical Slice.

• £500K (Director's Cut): Full production, high-fidelity assets, and expanded narrative.

Funding Strategy: Seeking Grant funding (Gov Cultural Grants), Crowdfunding (Kickstarter 2025), and Strategic Publisher Partnerships.

Release Target: Nowruz 2028 (PC - Steam/Epic).

MILESTONES

Yalda 2025: Pre-Production and Documentation. [Complete]

Nowruz 2026: Vertical Slice (The First Shift).

Mehregan 2027: Beta Phase (Full Content & QA).

Nowruz 2028: Worldwide Launch.

"Grief is a ghost. In the Persian Corridor, you don't just feel it... you survive it."

Key Plot Elements

Pre-game

• WWII

• Leprosy

• Mothers Death

• Invaders Camp outside the village

In-Game Narrative Points

• Meeting brother | Learn about the mechanics

• Village meeting | Exposition and stealth mechanic

• Kaveh's Rebellious View | Built up and end of exposition

• Kurosh's Decision | End of Part 1, Main gameplay begins

• Camp Sneaking | Player sneaks into camp and enters their segments

• Kaveh's Decision | POV changes to Kaveh, dialogue system, player chooses to plant the "package" in the enemy base using internal source. One of Kavehs friend can't do it, so he runs away. 

• Camp Stealing | POV back to Kurosh, he learns that the enemy is human too, they are also hurt, they also have death, meets a new character who is a medic and an engineer. They help him get what he needs and the interaction helps him accept the grief, he is beginning to understand death is permanent.  Still stealth his way out. 

• Father or Leader | Small cut-scene that the father fond out the elder brother is doing something stupid thanks to that friend that ran away, they have a talk/ a challenge of philosophy,  which ends when they both realise Kurosh is not with the other one. 

• Camp Escape | The player needs to get out, there is only one way to leave the last area the player is by. Which requires activating the alarm, and by this point Kurosh ability doesn't work properly, all 3 worlds start to blend into one. And at the very end, before he makes it out, the explosions go off while Kurosh is still running, player doesn't see if he made it out or not. 

• Guilt of Family | Both father and Kaveh realise their bickering made them not pay attention to Kurosh and lead to him running into the fire. They are helpless again, as they are watching, they see that Kurosh is running, but the explosion catches up to him (still un clear if he made it out or not)

• END | TBD but for now, the idea is to leave it for the players decide if he survived or not. If this game becomes successful, we would make Chapter 2 which is same story but different perspective, perspective of the foreign army.

Theme and Setting [Narratively]

The Persian Corridor is a role-playing historical game set during WWII located near North West of Iran. The player takes on the role of Kurosh [Cyrus | کورش] the younger brother of Kaveh (کاوه). The two sons to the elder of the village (کدخدا) -> Darius (داریوش). They get to experience the horror effect of war and Leprosy. Losing their mother to a disease that neither of them could save. Becoming the reason to push their family apart. Father buries himself into work, elder brother turns grief into anger while the youngest son is processing the confusion, denial, fear and change.

In the meanwhile the foreign forces push any village or city they come across to provide their units food, medicine, and force civilians into "volunteer" manual labour, leaving the villagers in desperation and thoughts to decide if they should retaliate or stay silent and ride the wave of life.

The father (Village leader) persuades the village that the army will leave, no need to resist. این نیز بگزرد "This too shall pass"

On the other hand, his eldest son finds a target for his anger  and rallies the youngsters to rebel, resist and retaliate against the invaders but not in the traditional protest way! He wants to destroy their equipment and their base with any means necessary!

While the youngest son, unknown to everyone else, sneaks into the enemy base to steal food and medicine. Not realising his elder brother is planning to destroy the base.

Which reflects on to the theme of this game. Its all about family, love, overcoming your fears/demons, culture, and dealing with grief and mental health.

The map is divided into four main sections that if you squint your eyes, it spells Iran in Farsi (ایران). 

Concept

The HUD will feature a decorative border inset approximately 1 inch (standardised to pixel padding) from the screen edges. The border is anchored by ornamental corner tiles inspired by Persian ceramic patterns (Girih tiles). These corner elements should utilise a modular tile-based aesthetic, as shown in the reference imagery, to create a 'frame' effect for the gameplay area.

Visual Concept: The 1-inch inset border serves as the "Hero’s Debt" Visualiser. Instead of a traditional digital timer, the player’s "time spent in Myth" is represented by the completion of a Persian mosaic frame.

Mechanical Behaviour:

• The Growth (The Transaction): When the player presses [Q] to enter The Golden Myth, the corner tiles (based on the hand-drawn sketch) begin to "grow" or fill with colour. Geometric lines extend from the corners toward the centre of the screen edges.

• The Completion (The Shatter): If the player remains in the Myth for the full 7 seconds, the mosaic frame completes a full circuit around the screen. At this moment, the "tile" effect should appear to crack or shatter, triggering the immediate transition into The Ink Nightmare.

• The Regression (The Debt): During The Ink Nightmare, the coloured tiles drain or turn to "ink black," receding back into the corners. Only when the corners are empty is the debt paid and the player safe to return to The Grey Reality.

Art Style

• Golden Myth State: The tiles are vibrant turquoise and gold with a "shimmer" effect.

• Sanity Tax (The Melting Film): When sanity is low, the Gaussian distortion mentioned in Overview should specifically target these tiles first, making the "meter" harder to read/see, representing Kurosh’s losing grip on his mental anchor.

The Metaphor

The HUD acts as a metaphor for Kurosh's mental state. The transition from the fluid, grey reality to the rigid, golden myth is represented by the Solidification of the Mosaic. As the Hero’s Debt increases, the ceramic frame 'cures' or 'hardens' from the corners inward. This creates a psychological 'closing in' effect, signalling to the player that their window of heroism is becoming a cage of debt.

In game design, I was essentially trying to create a "Gilded Cage." As Kurosh enters the Golden Myth, he feels powerful, but the more he "solidifies" that myth by completing the ceramic mosaic, the more he is actually becoming trapped in his own trauma/denial/fantasies.

Mechanical Concept: The Solidifying Frame
The UI shouldn't just be a timer; it should be a physical encroachment on the player’s agency.

The In-Fill (Visual Stress): As the 7-second timer runs, the empty space between two border lines fills with heavy, solid ceramic tiles.

The Restriction (Gameplay):

• Phase 1 (Seconds 1–4): The frame is "loose" (just the corner outlines). Kurosh is fast and agile.

• Phase 2 (Seconds 5–6): As the ceramics "set" and the border fills, the screen's Field of View (FOV) slightly narrows, creating a sense of claustrophobia.

• Phase 3 (Second 7 - The Set): The mosaic is complete and "solid." For a split second, the screen freezes, Kurosh is literally "set in stone", before the glass shatters and the Ink Nightmare begins.

Psychology

In psychology, there is a very specific term for exactly what you are describing: Maladaptive Daydreaming (MD).

It fits the game’s narrative perfectly because it describes a person who uses an "inner world" as a shield, only to find that the shield eventually becomes a cage.

The Psychological Framework for Persian Corridor

• Maladaptive Daydreaming --> A condition where intense, vivid fantasy replaces human interaction and real-life functioning. For Kurosh, the "Golden Myth" is a compulsive escape from the "Grey Reality."

• The Heroic Rescue Fantasy --> A specific type of daydream where the person imagines themselves as a powerful hero to compensate for feeling powerless in real life. This perfectly mirrors Kurosh becoming a "Hero of the Shahnameh."

• Dissociative Absorption --> The state of being so "into" a mental image or story that you lose touch with your physical surroundings. This is the "Q-System" mechanic in action, the deeper he goes into the myth, the more he "loses" the real world.

• The Detached Protector --> InSchema Therapy, this is a "mode" the brain enters to block out pain. It creates distance from trauma by numbing emotions. The "Ceramic Border" solidifying on HUD is the visual representation of this protection turning into a wall.

The "Trap" of Fantasy (Gameplay Loop)

In psychology, people who live in fantasy often experience Executive Dysfunction. Because the "dream world" is so rewarding (dopamine), the brain starts to find the "real world" unbearable and "boring" or "grey."

In game, the "Solidifying Ceramic" is this psychological trap:

• The Beauty: The tiles are gorgeous, intricate, and golden. This represents why Kurosh wants to be there. It feels safe and structured.

• The Cost: As the tiles set, they represent the rigidity of denial. When you "solidify" a lie (the fantasy), you can no longer move or adapt in the real world.

• The Result: You become a "statue" in your own mind. That’s why you lose control, and the "Ink Nightmare" (the truth of the trauma) finally shatters the glass/ceramics to get to you.

"Persian Corridor explores the danger of Maladaptive Daydreaming as a trauma response. The Golden Myth is not a 'superpower'; it is a Detached Protector mechanism. The more Kurosh relies on the rigidity of the Myth (the setting tiles), the more he loses his Agency in the Grey Reality."

Visual Effect: The Ceramic Flash (State Transition)

Upon the expiration of the 7-second Heroism timer, a 'Scene-to-Tile' shader will trigger. For 1.0 seconds, the current gameplay frame is re-rendered as a 2D Persian Miniature mural. This signifies Kurosh becoming 'petrified' by his own fantasy. The mural then shatters physically using Chaos Physics (UE5), transitioning the player into the Ink Nightmare. 

Technically and artistically, this is what is call a "Stylised Freeze-Frame Transition." By converting the scene into a Haft Rang (Seven-Coloured) tile mosaic for just one second, you are showing that Kurosh has become "frozen" in his own masterpiece. He is no longer a living boy; he is just a figure in a static, dead myth.

How this works mechanically (The "Shatter" Moment)

1. The Solidification: 1-inch border finishes filling. The last tile "clicks" into place. When the Edge is full, the rest of the ceramic pieces fall in very quickly (with less than a second) as if puzzle pieces are fitting together, and form the final picture  

2. The Flash (The 1-Second Mosaic): The 3D game world flattened into a 2D Persian tile mural.

   • If Kurosh was hiding behind a wall, the wall becomes a geometric pattern.

   • Kurosh himself becomes a stylised tile figure, looking like Rostam from the Shahnameh manuscripts.

   • This represents him being "trapped" in a specific Khan (Stage/Labour) of his grief.

3. The Shatter: A loud "glass/ceramic-cracking/breaking" sound effect plays. The tile mural cracks and falls away like shards of ceramic, revealing the Ink Nightmare underneath.

The Psychological Symbolism

In psychology, this is known as "The Petrified Self." When someone is so overwhelmed by trauma, they "freeze" (like stone). By turning the screen into a literal ceramic painting, you are showing the player that Kurosh's attempt to be a "Hero" has actually turned him into a museum piece, something beautiful but cold and unable to move.

Which "Khan" to reflect?

• The Lion: If Kurosh is caught, the mosaic shows him as Rostam sleeping while his horse Raksh fights a lion. This mirrors his Denial.

• The Enchantress: The ceramic shows Rostam resisting a beautiful witch who turns into a demon. This mirrors Kurosh’s Bargaining with the Myth.

• The White Demon: The death of the White Demon, mirroring Kurosh finally facing his Trauma.