Portfolio Itamar Efrat

As seen in the unity editor, we made the area large to give the player the feeling to explore a little. With lightning, bright moon and a very dark setting the area surrounding the house looks right out of a horror flick.

Other things I wanted to add was a deep mist to sort of cover the land, and after that make things move in the mist. Though I put this idea more to the background because the player is the horror and we wanted to put our focus more on spooking the residents rather than spooking the player, other than the time we had.

In-game look(one of the prototypes) of what the player sees when standing in front of the residence.

A few examples of which I've worked on:

The bright full moon orbits the map in only one line never leaving the sight, giving off the vibe that something unnatural is happening around the place. Never leaving the presence of the player and giving off light whenever it passes casting shadows in and around the house. This also helps when all other light sources are out.

Random lightning strikes(bright flashes only) occur around the house keeping the dark vibes alive at random moments. Keeping an edge on the theme, yet not very much on the foreground to give the player the feeling he or she is the horror. Instead of trying to scare the player.

The lampposts in the front are setup to present the house in a wealthy manner yet with the light tint to keep a bit of an old and a dark vibe to it. Perhaps to give off that the manor is old. This is reinforced with the tree in the middle, a white old looking tree with spotlights on it. Another sort of way to tell the player a bit about the story of the manor.

The player starts off in the little 'tomb' on the left, the room itself is dark with some dark red lights like a demon or ghost(the player) has awoken from slumber. Immediately the player is forced to meet the first passive ability, being able to move through walls(due to there being no door and the controls being made to float). The first thing the player sees when going outside is the vast area around the manor in which the player has a choice to explore or go straight for the house.

The idea of the placing of the tomb is that it is hard to spot, sort of unknown to the residents of the house, or known yet not investigated. This gives the player a sort of safe place, residents do not come close to the tomb.

As seen in the unity editor without light effects, here you can see the massive size of the area outside, multiple times larger than the house.

I had ideas and plans to make trees and bushes on the map in which the player could interact with. Making them move in an active way, drawing a lot of attention with loud cracking and wind sounds. Making the house less of the focus. Giving the player more possibilities to lure the residents out of the house and in terms spook them even better if done right.

We wanted to make the player somewhat vulnerable to an extent that you can't just float around and that is where I came up with an exorcist. The exorcist with the white globe above his head patrols the house and cleanses room by room. When the player gets too close you'll hear the exorcism being performed and slowly fading your screen as you are exorcised out of your own house.

Also you can see how dark it gets when the lights are turned off, with the only light source being the moon and the occasional lightning strikes. As I've said before this creates a more darker theme, which also makes it harder for the player. Giving the player more of a sense to play with which lights to turn off and or on.

To give the game some plot we added an Easter egg room, together with the starting location(tomb) it gives you more of an idea who you are and why you spook residents. In the setting of horror we went with a demon like-idea. Upside down cross, dark red lighting and sarcophagus. We wanted to add descriptions of a family who lived in the house and now reside in the sarcophagus, yet cut it from the final due to time issues, like many other ideas.

When the player turns off more and more lights the Easter egg room lights become easier to spot. If it so happens that the player does not come across the small room by accident the player would definitely at some point spot some odd red lights through a wall. Also like the tomb, this room is a safe place zone for the player.

One of the first prototypes of the house, purely for the layout and testing the first few features, like path finding(where the residents walk and how). Like the digital layouts I build this prototype, until a 3D model was build I could adjust minor changes in every iteration. Like a rooftop staircase.

Enemies come in waves from the top and you have to shoot a certain amount to proceed to the next wave. Every wave more enemies come your way and more enemies need to be taken down.

Your ship has health that can be upped(to the max of 5) with one specific power drop. Every object that collides with the player takes one health from the player, and also destroys the other.

The earth has a few 'lives' and with every enemy that passes the bottom one 'life' is lost.

The power drop gives one of the following power-ups: ship health, 'Goat mode', 'God mode', attack boost and a nuke,

The 'god mode' gives your ship invulnerability for a short period of time, with this you can collide with everything rather than shooting at them.

One of our selling points is the power-up that gives the player the notorious 'Goat mode'. In this mode the player shoots goats strapped with explosives for a short period of time. Giving a comedic vibe to the game.

The attack boost power-up grants the player an attack speed increase for a short period of time. These power drops can also be stacked and combined for a more powerful effect. Like shooting dozens of goats while crashing into the enemies with the god mode, total chaos.

In a weird way you, deadpool, got smaller and changed into a little dot.

You've got to eat your way bigger by eating other dots.

Every level the colours change and some dots cannot be eaten if they're not eaten fast enough.