THE ASYLUM
A short, first person puzzle game set in an abandoned asylum. Asylum if a first person escape room with elements of horror. Uncover the secrets of the asylum and try to escape, if you dare...
Solo Developer
This project was initially created as part of a university project in my second year. Its purpose was to be a level within a game that consists of a series of escape rooms. However, all of the programming and scripted events had to be done on a by level basis so everything within the level was implemented by me with the art and music sourced externally.
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This level pushed me to learn a lot more about unity and it's capabilities such as block meshing with probuilder, cinemachine, Timelines, Nav Mesh Agents and also furthered my understanding of OOP.
Extras
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Jump scares
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Individual puzzle design and creation
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Storytelling and character-building using documents
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UI wireframing and creation
Key Skills
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Level Design & Iteration
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Puzzle Design
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C# scripting
Level Design
My approach to this level was to create at least part of an architecturally sound asylum. The game was first person with simple interactions and document reading and a sprinkle of horror. Therefore, I decided to have hallways with corners for the chance of jump scares and to increase tension. I opted for a larger "safe room" inspired by Resident Evil 2 where it was open and would also operate as the mian area for solving puzzles. Everywhere else led to clues or provided objects to then solve the puzzles. I used distinct rooms and used signs in front of each room with signs as soon as the player exits the first room to help them navigate.
I also chose for the player to start in a single room so that they could learn all of the mechanics in the first room and use these skills to exit the room and use the same logic and mechanics to complete the rest of the level.
I used documents scattered around to highlight clues or just for story. Ones that contains clues were obviously marked with large red writing that were solutions to the cryptogram.
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This was my first 3D level from scratch so my main problems were essentially building the level using tools and modular assets for the first time. To counteract this I watched probuilder tutorials and played with it for a while before starting my blockmesh. Using modular assets I learned progrids to help keep everything snapping and tight within Unity. I also read the Unity documentatoin on cinemachine and followed their lessons so that I could learn using Timeline and Cinemachine although my cinematics were cut from the game as I felt they hindered the atmosphere of the level.
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The full design document can be seen in the bottom right.