For this assignment we are working closely with the Game Design students to produce a game with a strong narrative and good gameplay. We were assigned groups based on what our strengths were – for example, my strengths are character design and animation. This was to distribute work evenly while also maintaining a good standard for it.
The first group I was apart of quickly disbanded due to two members being asked to participate in a different project. I didn’t get much work done that week, apart from character designs for the project.
We were basing our game off of Irish folklore, so I researched Celtic myths and legends. Unfortunately, I was not able to use these designs or the knowledge I gleaned from various websites.
I was quickly put into a new group, with Karl, Joe, Tomasz and Ross from Game Design, and Darren, Lucy, Cathair and Nathan from Animation. Although I was slightly worried as they had already so much work done, Karl was kind enough to bring me up to speed via Discord. Our game is set in an Underwater facility that was used by Soviets during the 1960’s. Years later, an investigative reporter makes an inquiry and ends up exploring the facility. However, our protagonist suffers from psychosis and is haunted by figments of his imagination. Or so we presume. We like the idea toying with the player a bit – what’s real and what’s not? Are the shadows real, or are they just a result of the protagonist’s psychosis? I particularly find this an interesting subject to broach, as toying with the audience is the main aim of a horror game, and what better way to do that than distorting their perceptions of reality?
We named our game Sciophobia, which is a strong fear or dislike of shadows. I designed our logo and together, we came up with a name for our studio – Scaredy Cat Studios.
