Ethan's Portfolio - Nog Nightmare

Game Design | Visual Scripting

Summary

In this week long game jam, I and seven other teammates worked to create a holiday horror game. Our goal was to create a short horror experience that changes each run.

I took up the role as game designer, working closely with the artists and other designers to create a GDD. Helping maintain a consistent workflow.

Project Breakdown

One week time frame
Created using Unreal Engine 5
Responsibilities/Implementation
- Hiding spot mechanic
- Player interaction system
- Collectable items
- Win condition
- Helping with the random enemy scenario data table

Credits:

Sound Designer

Mikey Smith - Lighting/Music/Sound Design

Programming

Ethan Erickson-Lucas - Game Design

Tristan Arnold - Level Design

Herbert Jerald L Sado - Enemy AI Design

Artists

Leyla Stallings - Environmental/Prop Art

Mariah Gallo - Eniromental/Prop/Material Art

Jessica Reel - Enviromental/VFX Art

Sam Elizabeth - Character Artist

Herbert Jerald L Sado - Animator

Mechanic Breakdown

hide.mp4

Brightened for better view of mechanic

Hiding Spot Mechanic

When designing the hiding spot mechanic, our team prioritized a quick-to-implement and modular system that could be adapted in various spots across the house. The mechanic at minimum needed to allow:

Player Entering & Exiting Hiding Spots
Limiting Player Visibility
Player Leaning & Peeking
Deny Detection from Enemies
Deny Player Movement

In order to prevent any potential bugs with the player character I chose to make the hiding spot blueprint a pawn that would be possessable by the player (with a view target blend for smooth animation). That way I could limit the pawns movement, view, and lean capabilities without messing with the player character. From there I set it so the pawn would repossess the player character in the direction they are currently facing (for a smoother and realistic transition) upon exiting the hiding spot.

Additionally there were some other polishing features I added, like the interaction text and directionally responsive entering and exiting, but I'll digress.

Inspiration/Reference for Hiding Mechanic

Alien: Isolation
The Evil Within
Outlast

Our goal was to create tension and uncertainty, ensuring that players felt vulnerable yet engaged when avoiding threats.

To help bolster the feeling of vulnerability, we limited player movement to only adjusting the camera, similar to Alien: Isolation. This restriction heightened the tension by forcing players to stay put and rely on their senses rather than strictly running away. By removing the ability to move while hiding, we emphasized helplessness, making every encounter feel more high-stakes.

Additionally, we implemented dynamic enemy AI behavior to ensure that hiding remained a tense and unpredictable experience. Players couldn’t rely on a single hiding spot for safety, as enemies could patrol unpredictably, as well as locking certain doors that led to additional spots. increasing the need for strategic timing and awareness.

Alien : isolation. (2014). San Francisco, CA :SEGA of America, Inc.

GIF by Kirsten Acuna/Business Insider

Nog Nightmare Interaction Clip.mp4

Brightened for better view of mechanic

Interaction System/Collectables

When designing the basic interaction system our team decided that we just needed a simple interaction system. At minimum, the system would require:

Player's Ability to Interact with Specific Objects
Context-Sensitive Prompts
Limited Interaction Range

To ensure flexibility with other blueprints, I chose to implement interactions through a Blueprint Interface (BPI). Allowing the component to be attached to specific objects, allowing the player's input to send an activation messages, without interfering with other objects.

For the player's input, I used a line trace from the player's viewpoint, detecting interactable objects within range, and displaying a prompt when applicable. When the player presses the interact button, the corresponding action (such as picking up an item or triggering an event) is executed.

For the Interactable objects (cookies, mug, and fridge/win zone), when activated turned off the components visibility and collision events, to prevent players from interacting with it multiple times. each item had it's own purpose. the cookie reduced the player's nausea (a bar that when filled caused a lose state). The mug acting as a key to open the fridge, where when opened allowed the player to interact with the fridge and win the game.

All in all just a simple interaction system.

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