(Game unavailable after 3rd March 2023 due to Crayta shutting down)
Showreel
Idea
For this game I wanted to try and create the feeling of unease that's felt when exploring an abandoned bunker, and make the player wonder what had happened there. At the beginning the bunker inspired by soviet bunkers, designed to be what a player might expect from exploring an abandoned bunker, but the further down the player goes, the more unusual it gets.
After finding players wanted to explore the woods, I added more lights to direct them down the hole, as well as invisible walls to make it clear nothing was hidden on the surface
Generator Room
The corridors require the player to crouch to enter, and wind as they go through. This is to force the default Crayta camera into first person, to enhance the feeling of claustrophobic, while the low ceiling is also accurate to how real bunkers often are.
Office
This room overlooks the shower room the player entered through. The one way mirror means the player is now aware they may be being watched. The green colour of light used both in this room and the office before draws attention to key information.
Original design
Originally I had wanted to do a central room with doors each leading to a different cell. However, this ended up not being interesting, and each cell felt tedious to explore
Chosen design
In the final design, the player first enters a room of pillars, and only later discovers they are cells. The pillars tower over them, and the regular sizes with different orientations creates a sense of disorientation.
As I wanted the player to feel disoriented but not actually lost, I had the ceiling slope downwards. So when they entered the room it was far above them, but at the back it would be more cramped. This also meant if they went to a side wall instead of straight, they would follow the wall down to the correct side, rather than looping back by mistake
Lower ceiling towards the back
Exit visible with the same light above found in the previous sections. This door is visible from any point along the back wall, to ensure the player doesn’t miss it
The initial idea of the objects floating randomly. Adding form to the spiral made the scene easier to understand, and more interesting to traverse
Spiral
The pillar room was designed to feel intimidating, but also like it was human made. In contrast, this room breaks away from the grounded world. The entire room is bright white, contrasting the dimly lit bunker, and objects swirl around a central void above. To proceed, the player must climb up the spiral, and jump into the black void.
Down Again
The spiral up has random objects out of context. Here, the objects are together in small scenes, like parts of a room were ripped out and ended up there. Each scene had a note with a clue towards the story of the place on it.
Refuge
The only point in the game where there’s any plants, or food that isn’t rotten. The contrast between it and both the harshness of the bunker and the surrealness of the spiral suggests it’s created by someone who doesn’t belong there.
The Manor
At the lowest level, is a manor. This is designed to suprise the player, as it is completely different from both the bunker rooms and the white rooms seen up until this point. The view is revealed after going down a long, cramped staircase to make it seem even larger. Since the theme of the area is so different to the bunker earlier, the setting will be memorable to the player.
I used google sketchup to plan the layout of the manor and stylized it like a georgian manors. The lack of a front door or entryway is intended to show the player that the inhabitant would have been stuck here, with the only way in hidden
Dining Room
The holes around the room’s wainscoting can be looked through before the player enters the room, creating a feeling of being watched. The eye catching art on the wall is also a one way mirror that the player is later able to see from the other side (the style of the art on the wall was limited by crayta’s voxel choices, as it had to be a glass that was transparent, looking like it was art)
Each room has elements in common – the wainscoting is present in all of them, the style of furniture, and the windows which help orientate the player, but each room has slightly different colours to help differentiate them
Hidden Rooms
The hidden rooms have a significantly different style to the rest of the manor, as they are lacking decoration and filled with medical equipment
One way mirror
Various one way mirrors reinforce that the inhabitant was constantly watched
Hidden notes
When the player investigates the out of place furniture, they will find notes hidden there. This was to suggest the inhabitant knew they were being watched
The bedroom gives the player a clear view of the lights from the walkway they were previously on
The lights draw the player towards the window, where they then turn and see note on the bed.
The nursery has items flying in the room, and shows that a child lived here. Additionally, though the player never sees the other side of it, the same style of art on the wall hides each previous secret mirror in the manor implies that this room is also being watched. The player must find a key to the nursery door from within the secret rooms to enter the final room and progress
A simple nursery with a note that explains more of the background of the character from this room
Final Room
After passing through the door, the player enters a void. Here, they meet the inhabitant and have the choice to release them or keep them trapped. The space is too bright to see details, leaving the characters as silhouettes.
