Haunting Memories

Available on Steam!

Haunting Memories is a psychological horror game developed and released by my Studio Dandelion Developers. It was created by me and two others to learn more about project managment and game development. Haunting Memories is released on Steam and so far the reception has been quite good! The game was developed outside of school, and therefore it had very limited development time. The team consisted of 4 graphical artists, 3 programmers and me being the solo Project Manager along with multiple other roles.

My Contributions

Lead Level Designer
Game Designer
Project Manager (Scrum Master & Product Owner)
Sound Design
3D Assets & Environmental Art
Narrative

Level Design & Game Design

The initial name for the game was Horror House, as the original idea was to make a house that came alive and would play mindtricks with the player about what is reality and what isn't. Because of this, the main Level & Game Design is focused a lot around the house itself and how it changes throughout the game. You experience time anomalies in different rooms, some rooms flip upside down and there is also some rooms that are broken apart, requiring you to jump around on furniture to progress. Combining all these aspects with psychological horror we also wanted to make sure that the atmosphere of every level was horrifying and intense.

Level Design Focus of the Game

In this game I wanted to focus heavily on pacing, as this is very important for the horror genre. As I did a lot of the Game Design as well I could easily place certain areas in the game that would be more intense. This could be that the monster would appear, jumpscares, scary moments and the more intense platforming parts. When the game starts the pacing is quite low, and you mainly walk around to explore, figure out more about the story and get a sense of what's going on. But throughout the game the horror increases and the intensity of the levels also increase.

Attracting the Player Attention

Through the use of lighting and simple geometry we can create a pinch point which will focus the players attention towards a horrifying event.

Time Anomalies

By having the furniture in this room being covered by sheets, the player will assume the house is old and believe that no one lives here. Some doors are also locked, creating tension for the player when not being able to open them.

Tension Release

At a later stage, the room has come alive and through the use of lights the player will be directed towards the previously locked doors. Releasing the tension once they realize the doors have now been unlocked and new areas can be explored.

Chaotic Environment

As the house comes alive, the environment becomes chaotic and the rooms play tricks on your mind. This fits in with the story as well, as the story unfolds that a demonic cermony has taken place which has influenced the building.

Player Progression

By solving puzzles the player feels as they are accomplishing something by making the house normal again. But the horror theme still stands, by having lighting, sounds and horrifying events take place in just the right places.

Platforming

This game is also based on a game two of our members did in our first year of school. That game involved a lot of platforming and we wanted to bring that aspect into this game. The platforming makes for a shift in gameplay, paired with intense and horrifying moments, as the monster chases you through this dark abyss.

Project Manager

This was my first real project ever, and as we had very low experience in the team, I decided to be the Project Manager to help us with planning and development. This meant I was both the Product Owner and the Scrum Master, taking care of meetings, communication, planning and overseeing the entire games development as well.

This taught me a lot about how extremely important communication is from everyone in the team and that you need to have a clear vision of what to do. One thing I also realized halfway through the project is how important feedback is, and that I want everyone in the team to give constructive feedback at all times. As this not only helps make the product as good as possible, but also helps us evolve as developers.

Being the Project Manager of a project outside of school, with very limited time and resources was a very difficult task. But it taught me so much about these roles, and it also directed my focus towards Producing in future projects.

Remaining Contributions

Game Design

My main focus as Game Designer for this project was the horror aspect, what where and when would we deploy the monster interactions. How we used sounds, lighting, interactions and events to create a sense of unease and intensity for the player.

Sound Design

This was my first time trying out Sound Design. It consisted a lot of trying to make my own sounds, finding sounds that were copyright free that I could edit and fit into the game. As I have no backgrund in Sound Design engineering it was basicly trial and error with creating and adding sounds. The focus of the Sound Design was to make it fitting to the horror genre and also making somewhat realistic sounds in the environment.

3D Assets & Environmental Art

I made a decent amount of 3D assets for the game, and the style of the assets was mid poly and gothic to fit the horror theme. These assets can be found on my ArtStation.

As for the Environmental Art I would place assets and create enviroments & lighting that would also fit the style of the room, and the horror theme.

Narrative

I was mainly a part of brainstorming the original idea for the narrative. Later on I also helped write the characters dialogue and where to put certain environmental storytelling pieces. This was very important since I was the Level Designer of the project I also had to create space for the Narrative to take place in a well paced manner.