INTRODUCTION
Stay Alone
2D horror game
2021-10
Concept
Christ, a 12 year old boy, wake up alone in his deepest nightmare. Follow and protect him from horrifying creatures, and gradually discover the truth of reality that trap him here.
WHY I MADE THIS GAME
I formed the idea of making a 2D horror game after reading a news about school bullying: A grade 8 boy beaten to death by his classmates.
Beside being shocking and angry, I know I am not absolutely powerless towards this social problem. Therefore, I decide to write a story about a boy, Christ, whose fear and anxiety towards being bullied were visualized and trap him inside his nightmare.
I want players to explore the dream world with Christ to form emotional bond with him and gradually discover that he is the victim of a terrible school bully. I believe the game could allow players to empathize with people that suffered from school bullying, and contribute to avoid similar events from constantly happening.
CASE STUDY
I was inspired by Sally face which is a typical 2D adventure horror game. Therefore, the main game mechanic I design for Stay Alone is about exploring the world to promote plot and solving events to proceed. I was also inspired by the hallway chasing scenes in Neverending Nightmare that add pressure to player and make the game experience more thrilling and intense.
The art style in Stay Alone is influenced and inspired by Don’t Starve and Fran Bow. The dark and supersaturated scene generates a depressed and uncanny atmosphere that fit into the goal of putting players in an anxious position in the game. After conducting trials for characters, I eventually decide to apply some gothic element to main character Alex to indicating his unhealthy mental state to players.
CORE GAMEPLAY MECHANICS
#1 PICK UP SYSTEM
The original form of puzzle that I desire to incorporate into the game is similar with puzzles in Sally face to simply collect up object and hand out to NPC. However, I found this system lack of further player feedback since player is simply walking in a side roll environment. Therefore, I decide to apply a more complex and interactive system to the game.
- <How it works>
I utilized a 3D background to allow players to walk with depth. To strengthen the feedback system, I designed a pick-up system which require player to constantly press E on keyboard to held the object they found, and avoid obstacles to eventually carry them to NPC.
PROTOTYPE
FOR PICK UP SYSTEM
●Prototype used for the Pick up System
Including two parts:
●The part on player character that indicating how to pick up object-I put a scene points at different positions in the front of main character. If an pickable object appears in one or more scene point as player pressed E, it would be attach to the player character until player released E.
●
●The other part directly relates to puzzle solving: I set password for both objects and NPC position, and make correct object to have same password with the mission position. Therefore, only when player carry the correct object to the position would the puzzle be solve and transit to the next scene.
#2 HALLWAY CHASING AND CLICK TO BREAK OUT SYSTEM
Chasing has always been a classic way to add pressure and shock player in a short amount of time. At the beginning, I’m simply planning to add a boss to chase players and force players to run. To avoid boredom, I add in some obstacles in the 3D environment to make the chasing more thrilling. However, I realized after the first trial that it is still too simple. At last, I come up with the Click to Break Out system.
-<How it works>
-I build some inevitable obstacles on the way of players that require players to quickly clicking the screen to break out. This is could make the game more intense since player would be anxious of watching the boss get closer and cannot move their body.
PROTOTYPE
HALLWAY CHASING AND CLICK TO BREAK OUT SYSTEM
●Prototype used for the hallway Chasing System include the constant moving of camera follow the movement of the boss, and add an invisible wall to the boss’s position that will kill the play if it is being touched.
●As for the Click to Break Out system, I add some trigger box in the hallway, and bind a progress bar with the clicking of player: player won’t be able to move after they step into an area with trigger box until they click up to the top of a constantly dropping progress bar.
ARTWORKS
