Dead End

This page is dedicated to the development of my personal school game design project: Dead End. Dead End is a first-person horror game that centers around the player finding their way out of the forest while on a camping trip, trying to survive the monster that relentlessly stalks the player.

Dead End Post 1: This is my first post for my game called “Dead End”. A first-person horror survival game that takes place in a forest. I am currently in the prototyping phase of the project. I’ve decided to create a blank slate for the forest I’ll be creating. The method of prototyping that I’ve chosen for this project is gray boxing. I selected this method because I felt that gray boxing would be a great way to start the foundation of the map of Dead End. It helped me figure out the size of the map and what things I could implement into it.

Dead End Post 2: I started out by using Unreal Engine’s landscape editing feature that allows people to build any landscape. My goal is to make a good-sized map for the player to explore. At the beginning of the process, I added a mannequin to get a feel for the scope of the map. I’ve also begun to add Quixel mega scan assets to make the environment look as realistic as possible. After extensive searching for good-looking assets on Unreal Engine’s marketplace, I’ve decided to settle on one of the few available free packs, which were Quixel trees and foliage that felt perfect for the environment that I had envisioned. I aimed to create an unsettling forest environment where the player feels like they are always being watched, or something lurking just beyond the flashlight range.

Dead End Post 3: I’ve made a decent amount of progress so far on my game since the last post. I’ve drawn out a good map of the level, including the paths the player can take and where key locations that I have in mind will be. I added in the monster enemy that players will need to avoid. I’m currently using an Unreal Engine mannequin model since I do not yet have a model for the monster. I also successfully added animations to the monster that I feel work well. However, I want the monster to be running towards the player when the player is in sight, so far now I am giving it a walking animation. The running animation that I plan on using has been showing issues when it’s applied. The issue is that the monster will teleport back a few feet every couple of seconds when running, which I have yet to solve. One mechanic that I added is a closet object that the player can hide in, which will cause the monster to lose sight and continue searching for the player. I’m also considering shrinking the map down a little bit. Sometimes I think that the map is too big, and too much forest for the player to get lost in. Despite these issues that I’m currently dealing with or changes that I’m considering, I’m happy with how my game is turning out so far, but there is still a lot to be worked on.