Game Trailer Research - Playground

I am creating a horror game and I want to make a trailer that shows a lot of abstracted scenes because I don't have a big level to show horror elements and I want to make it looks better in the trailer. Also, the trailer ended with curiosity instead of jumpscare or revealing more information. I think Resident Evil 7 has good references for my game trailer.

Scene1

 

Scene2

First, after the phone closed up shot, the trailer uses jump cut between environment and story scene that gives a metaphor of danger. It is also good for a nice transition to story and environment.

 Closed up shot

Changing Field of View Shot

Second, the trailer uses closed up shot and camera speed very well. In the final part where the trailer gets intense, it uses various camera technics such as closed up shot, birds eye view shot, speeding up, changing the field of view.

 Background Shot

 Closed up shot

Intense Scene Shot

Logo Shot

With these references, I planned to use the jump cut on slow environment scene and fast event scene with a girl singing in the background. Around 15 seconds, the music gets intense and the camera switches to another shot faster than before. Additionally, the girl counts down the numbers. Before the final part, the girl shows herself when players open the door and it cuts to the black screen with ending all background music except the girl voice "Hey daddy Do you want to play a game?" and the Game Logo fade in the scene.

Voodoo Hut Modular Kits

Overall shot

Overall shot base color

Wall shot

Wall Detail

Doorwall shot

Doorwall Detail

Floor Shot

Floor Detail

Interstitial

Concept Art

Working in Progress

This is my 4 modular kits for the assignment. (Interstitial, Wall, Doorwall, Floor) For these pieces, I put mostly wood textures with mossy texture and vertex painting. Mossy texture and vertex painting have a different roughness. I had a struggle in the beginning since I didn't know how to make it interesting and give variety, and I decided to put fences that cover the wall, fabric, and ropes. Overall, I feel satisfied with my pieces and I am excited to do next prop projects for the Voodoo Hut.

Weekly Journal 3 - Greybox Project for GA227

This is the final version of greybox project for Game design class (GA227) It used to have 6 endings for replayable contents, but my professor does not like it since it cuts players' experience, so I decide to focus on more cinematic experience and horror elements on my game and I am satisfied with this version more. For now, the project stops now, but we will definitely continue on this project when we have enough sources from 3d class (props and modular kits)

Weekly Journal 2 - Rough Adventure Game WIP

I have been working on the 3d project, but there is nothing to show right now since we are stuck on UV mapping, so here is another project. This is the adventure game that I need to create for game design 1 class. For TODAY, I created the timer and fixed the door at the beginning. I will definitely put more stuff and make it looks fancy with exist modular kits from me and my classmates’ work.

Weekly Journal 1 - Rough Modular Kits (Modular Kit project)

I’ve been busy a lot, but I decided to start my weekly journal. Here is my modular kit working in progress 1. For this project, I need to finish four modular kits with 25,000 tris limitation. For rough models, I only use 8538 tris. I hope I can make solid modular kits :)

Voodoo Hut Level Design

Level Paper Map

Level Design Script

Level Intro

Background:  In modern day, James travels through Coral Forest to find voodoo queen. He heard that voodoo queen can use black magics, but she is hiding in Coral Forest. In the middle of the trip, he gets caught by unknown primitive people. When he wakes up,

Scene: Deep forest, Inside of voodoo hut, Can see the dark forest through windows.

Time: Night

Conditions: Foggy. Visible interior.

Characters:

James Player Character, an adventurer, Male. Early 30’s

Ghosts Male and Female

Level_A Locked Room Intro situation, escape from the room.

The Camera is in James’ perspective view. Fade up from black. The lightning makes noise and James wakes up from a bed. The footstep sounds come from the door. The multiple step sounds go far away from the door.

JAMES

Auch… My head hurts… Where did they take me in? I should probably get out before they notice.

TEXT ONLY DIALOG

Find a way to get out of the room

Now players can freely move around the room. Out of the window, it is dark, the rains come, and tall trees are barely seeable. There are some voodoo decoration on the shelf and the table. On the table, players can find the evil symbol drawing on the paper, but it does not do anything for not. There are also many abstracted paintings on the wall. The candles on the wall brighten the room. When players interact with the door, the door is locked.

JAMES

It’s locked… Is there something that I can use to open this door?

After checking door, players can interact with the paper. When players grab the paper, the symbol disappeared and texts come out.

NOTE TEXT

September 25th 2017

Again… Here is another adventurer who got caught from these people. Do you need a help? I can help you, but you need to help US too.

After reading the note, the door is opened with a noise. When players see the door, a human shadow goes far away from the door without any footstep sound.

TEXT ONLY DIALOG

Find a way to get out of the room (complete)

When the players go out of the room, the Level_A is ended.

****CHECKPOINT****

Level_B Hallway Intro characters

When players step in the hallway, they become slower and their footstep sounds get bigger. The hallway is decorated with a few flowers on the floor and candles on the wall, but when players go through the hallway, the candles on the wall are turned off slowly from far away to players.

Ghosts

Help us.... (Whispering)

A few seconds later.

Ghosts

Help us.... Help us.... Help us.... (repeated)

When all the  lights turn off, the hallway is barely visible. When players come close to the window, the lightning comes with a big noise and the shadows appears on the window.

Ghosts

HELP US!!!!!(scream)

James walks away while watching the window.

JAMES

Oh my gods… What the heck is that…?

After the event, all the lights turn on, shadows disappear, and everything becomes normal. Also, the the players’ speed becomes normal. When players turn around the corner and go through all the hallway, Level_B ends.

****CHECKPOINT****

Level_C Lobby Intro Emergency situation, escape from the room before times out.

When players enter the lobby, they can see the long shelf and table covered by black clothes, a tree goes through the house, other voodoo decorations on the table, and a lot of books on another shelf. Players cannot remove the black clothes at this time. There is also a small treasure box on the table, but it is locked. When players find the note with a evil symbol drawing on the tree, the window vibrates and the ghosts start to talk.

Ghosts

HELP US!!! YOU SAID YOU ARE GOING TO HELP US!!! (scream)

When ghosts scream, the window also vibrates with a lot of knocking sounds.

JAMES

What the hack do you want me from?

TEXT ONLY DIALOG

Escape before they break the windows

When the text dialog comes, two minute timer comes on the screen. The black clothes are also removable at this point. When the time runs out, ghosts break the window, turn off all the candles again, and the camera fades out and it will bring players back to the checkpoint. To escape from the room, players need to find a key in the room. When players get rid of the black clothes, they can see a bunch of animals’ body parts in bottles of liquid, a lot of papers related to black magic, and skulls.

JAMES

Oh my god….

The key can be found in one of the jars that contains animal's’ body parts. The table drawer can be opened, but players cannot find anything but a note.

NOTE TEXT

September 25th 2017

Looking for the key for unlocking the box? We put it in one of the jar. HaHaHa

JAMES

You gotta be kidding me...

James tries to find a key by putting his hands in a jar for three times, and making random, terrifying noise.

JAMES

No…..(first time)

JAMES

Shit…(second time)

JAMES

Fxxx!!(third time)

After the three times, James breaks a jar.

JAMES

Why did I put my hands in there. Fxxx this.

When players find the key in the jar, they can open the small box on another table and find a key. When players open the door with a key, the door opened. However, when the players step on the dark room, a ghost face pops up on the screen and players are pulled to the Lobby.

Ghosts

Help us...Help us…(repeated)

Ghosts

The only thing that we need is your body.

JAMES

No..NO!!!!!(Scream)

The camera fades out and the game ended.

THE END

Level Reference

Game Analysis- Alien Isolation

     Alien Isolation is a horror adventure game that is developed by Creative Assembly on October 7th, 2014. The game is based on the first Alien movie where people cannot kill the creature. The game shows the wonderful graphics that goes through a futuristic spaceship with a horrible disaster.

Game Analysis Video

     Amanda Ripley, a main character of the game, comes to the ship to search her mother. However, because of the explosion and an accident on the ship, she needs to escape from the ship and survive from an unknown creature. Alien is an immortal creature that is dangerous to Amanda and survivors on the ship. Since it cannot be killed by anyone, she needs to hide from Alien. Android is other enemies that try to stop Amanda to go some limited space. If she is in the unauthorized space, Androids would try to kill Amanda. The last enemy, humans are survivors like Amanda but tries to kill her since they got scared from Alien. She needs to avoid hostile survivors in the game.

     This is one of the maps that I played last time. In this area, the androids show up for the first time and the game shows an event that androids are dangerous. In order to contact to her ship, she needs to go to the restricted area and call Christoper. When she goes through the restricted area, it is easy to hide and avoid androids. However, when she reaches the object, the alarm is on and androids are looking for her. Also, because of that, you cannot save in the middle of the map and you will find Alien once again when you reached the middle point.

     This map contains good elements for level design. First, the game triggers the alarm to make it more intense. It also gives players different situation in the same area, that increases more playtime. Second, the level design makes players forget and remind about the alien. In the beginning of the map, androids welcome players to go through the map and an alien shows up all the sudden in the last part when players need to escape.

     In the game, she has some advantages to survive in this mess. First, she has an ability to create items if she has blueprints. Second, she can use weapons against to mortal enemies, but she cannot kill Alien. Third, she has a tracker that tracks the movement of creatures. However, she cannot survive with these benefits from the alien. The existence of Aliens can adjust the level design and intensity, but it gives the feeling that it does not change the difficulty of the game since players can be killed by it in just one hit. It causes a problem because players cannot go through the map even with easy difficulty.


Core Mechanic
To survive from enemies, find exit

Gating
- Locked Door
- Alien
- Androids
- Survivors

Positive Feedback
- Looting
- Hiding
- Attack
- Using, Crafting Item
- Tracking Enemies
- Map

Negative Feedback
- Week
- Limited Items
- Making Noise

Story integration
- Short Story Cut Scene
- Mini Event