Nightmare Descent into Darkness:

Dive into Your Deepest Fears

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This project was a collaborative effort, with the following highlighting my specific contributions.

Game Demo Video:

Game Overview:

Nightmare Descent into Darkness is a first-person psychological horror game that takes players on a harrowing journey through a world of terror and suspense. Developed using Unity, this game showcases advanced programming skills in AI behavior, environment design, and puzzle mechanics.

The game features three meticulously crafted levels, each designed to confront specific phobias. Players must evade eerie AI monsters while solving intricate puzzles and facing chilling challenges. Atmospheric exploration of a spooky world includes eerie buildings, dark environments, and complex puzzles, leading players through tight corridors, haunted locations, and other fear-inducing settings.

The narrative unfolds through mysterious notes and hints, guiding players toward overcoming each fear to escape the nightmare. This game combines the need to confront fears, solve puzzles, and navigate dark environments, offering a truly immersive horror experience.

Set in a dark, flooded open world, players must locate three buildings, each containing a level inspired by common phobias. With no combat mechanics, survival hinges on solving intricate puzzles and avoiding relentless enemies. Overcoming these deep-seated fears unlocks the final challenge, marking the end of the nightmare.

Key Features:

Level Design and Environment:

• Open-World Exploration: The game features a compact open-world map where players navigate between three distinct buildings, each representing a unique phobia. The minimalist architecture enhances tension and focuses on atmospheric elements.

• Phobia-Centric Levels: Each building contains a level themed around a specific fear, including spiders, claustrophobia, and madness. These levels are designed to provide a deeply immersive horror experience without relying on procedural generation.
  • Level 1: Arachnophobia and Nyctophobia

    

    • Environment: Traverse through a claustrophobic bungalow infested with spiders and constrained spaces.
    • Gameplay: Solve web-themed puzzles and avoid hidden threats.
    • Mechanics: A ghost presence triggers key spawns and dynamically unlocks access to other areas. The ghost emits eerie sounds and animations, challenging players to confront their fear.
  • Level 2: Claustrophobia

    

    • Environment: Navigate narrow corridors with walls that gradually close in, creating a sense of impending doom.
    • Gameplay: Escape the converging walls within a time limit to avoid being crushed.
    • Mechanics: Dynamic lighting helps players navigate, while implicit instructions and environmental cues enhance immersion and mystery.
  • Level 3: Dementophobia

    

    • Environment: Explore a madhouse filled with particle effects, shader effects, and atmospheric sounds, while evading a roaming priest AI.
    • Gameplay: Collect hidden keys to unlock the exit while avoiding detection by the AI.
    • Mechanics: AI sound design indicates search and caught states, and a specialized field of view class helps the AI detect players. If caught, a cutscene signals game over.

Open World Exploration

• Design: A 3D open-world setting is created using assets from the Unity Asset Store, featuring a minimalist design to enhance psychological immersion.
• Atmospheric Elements: The PSX shader is employed for retro visual effects, including low-res pixelation, dithering, and retro vertex lighting. Fog and other environmental effects contribute to the eerie ambiance and guide player exploration.

AI-Assisted Tension

• AI System: Two dynamic AI agents patrol the open world, searching for the player. If they catch the player, the game ends. The AI patrols random waypoints each playthrough, adding replayability and maintaining tension.

Immersive Audio and Visual Design

• Audio: 3D sound enhances engagement in specific zones, with unique audio cues for scares, jump scares, and AI interactions. Distinct sound design for AI behaviors contributes to the immersive horror experience.
• Visual Cues and Environmental Guidance: Level entry points are marked with flames, lights, and other visual indicators. Diegetic elements and environmental storytelling subtly direct players, reducing reliance on overt UI hints.

Progression and UI

• UI Text: Provides hints and guidance to assist players in progressing through the game.
• Particle Effects: Highlight interactable objects and aid in navigation.

Technical Achievements

• PSX Shader: Emulates PSX rendering with low-res pixelation, dithering, color banding, retro vertex lighting, and affine texture mapping.
• AI Systems: Developed patrolling and chasing behaviors using NavMesh and Finite State Machine (FSM) logic. Dynamic waypoint patrols ensure varied gameplay each session.
• Cutscene Integration: Utilized Unity's Timeline and Cinemachine for seamless storytelling and narrative progression.
• Puzzle Design: Created physics-based and event-driven puzzles that challenge players' problem-solving skills.
• Environmental Scripting: Implemented real-time lighting, fog, and atmospheric effects to enhance immersion.

Final Level and Conclusion

• Final Stage: Upon overcoming all phobias, players unlock a final stage set in the open world. A cutscene hints at the objective: activating a lighthouse and luring the two hunting AI agents to the light. Successfully leading the AI to the lighthouse symbolizes the end of the nightmare and the player's triumph over fear.

Conclusion: Nightmare Descent into Darkness is a testament to my technical prowess in game development. From AI programming to immersive environment design, this game challenges players to confront their deepest fears in a meticulously crafted horror experience.

Presentation:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Rc5UD20cR-pvEZDlayl-NZp5xP6QfJ3-Jv1l6d-R...