About the Game

We created a fast paced and intense 2D platformer, essentially a cat-and-mouse style game. It combines rapid action with exploration and offers a short playtime of around 60 to 180 seconds (up to 3 minutes).

The game’s aesthetic carries a horror atmosphere and takes place in the 1890s inside a haunted mansion inspired by Victorian architecture. The player takes on the role of a young girl who must explore the mansion and collect clues, some of which contain keys needed to open the large exit gate. These notes also reveal bits of lore that unfold the story behind the game. Meanwhile, the player must evade a monster roaming the halls. By finding all the clues, the player can unlock the gates and escape the mansion.

Gameplay

The monster is faster than the player, but through clever movement and timing, it’s possible to outsmart it. The player can run, wall-jump, leap over obstacles, and slide underneath them to navigate the environment. Colliding with obstacles reduces acceleration and speed for both the player and the monster, increasing the risk of being caught.

To add an additional gameplay layer, Light Orbs can be collected throughout the level. Ignoring them causes a gradually intensifying vignette effect that limits visibility. Collecting the orbs removes this effect, restoring full sight and gives the player a tactical advantage.

My Role and Focus

My main focus was on sound design and implementation, as well as integrating animations. These two elements are closely connected, and the main challenge was to make them work seamlessly together.

Initially, I planned to create an Audio Manager script to handle all aspects of sound implementation. However, to avoid interfering with other team members code, I instead referenced their scripts from my own. This approach soon became unsustainable as we needed to handle audio in multiple ways, and the number of scripts increased.

Another challenge was creating audio for animations that had not yet been finalized. In film or video, there’s always a visual reference to guide the sound design. For an extended period, I had to design and implement sound without access to the final animations. This led me to take on the role of implementing all the animations, which made the process of designing character sounds much easier.

Process and Reflections

In the early stages, it was difficult to visualize and design audio without a clear idea of the game’s atmosphere or what types of sounds that would work best. Our workflow was agile, I sketched ideas, discussed them with the team, tested them in Unity, and iterated based on feedback.

Working with one-shot sounds (audio clips that play repeatedly during testing) also presented challenges. After hearing them so many times, it can be hard to maintain perspective or recall the original intention. Sometimes a sound felt perfect in isolation, but once implemented in Unity alongside music and ambience, its character changed completely.