LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNELS

Enter the Ghouliverse in Light at the End of the Tunnels, a virtual reality horror experience for the Oculus Rift. You play as an office intern, who needs to investigate an old mining site in order to take flash photography of the different ghouls and ghosts inhabiting the seemingly abandoned tunnels and as you search for your co-worker, Darry, before returning to your office at the end of the workday.

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Originally, this project started in an Intro to Game Design course at USC. What started as an "easy" foray into C# and Unity turned into a larger playground for testing out design elements that amplify feelings of fear. When it came time to work on a thesis project for my final year in the Interactive Media & Game Design Master's program, I returned to this project with a team of seven in order to explore this idea of horror and virtual reality, where minimal visual stimuli was a key feature. 

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Trailer

itch.io Download Page

USC Games Expo: Keynote Design Presentation

USC Games Expo: RedVacktor's Gameplay Stream

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My duties included,

• Leading a team of seven through the development of the game, including a producer, three engineers, a 2-D artist, and two composers.

• Creating a macro chart documenting all narrative beats, level progression, player goals (etc.) based on the final 2D level layout.

• Designing four iterations of the 2D level layout in Photoshop.

• Designing the 3D level layout in Unity to supplement the macro chart: Scenes included an office area and mining tunnels inhabited by different creatures. 

• Creating enemy and scare encounters of various intensities based around where the player is looking.

• Creating a master greybox scene in Unity to prototype all player mechanics.

• Rescaling the tunnel environment to accommodate enemy AI.

• Preparing scenes for static mesh light baking before running builds.

• Conducting three rounds of external playtesting in preparation for major milestones, utilizing traditional usability methodologies.