NÉCROPOLE
Pitch:
After the apocalypse, the poorest people of Paris ended up living in the catacombs. You play a soldier from middle class, separated from their squad while creatures seem to be lurking around.
Breakdown :
- - 8 Weeks
- - Team of 4
- - Unreal Engine 5
- - Focus on the immersion
Game Design
Inspired by games such as Little Nightmares, we opted for a mostly side-scrolling game with puzzles and monsters.Originally, the player was supposed to enter a room and, depending of its type, flee the monster or solve the puzzle. Then he would be awarded with exploration to learn more about the world before going into the next zone. However, by reducing our scope, we had to simplify the loop. So we merged the two types of rooms into one. A maze with a puzzle to solve while we are hunted by the creature.
Level Design
I took over my friend's work on level design and changed the map according to our teacher's feedback. More verticality, less corridors between rooms and a small maze to allow our monster to roam more freely.
Sound Design
I tried to go for an anxious atmosphere during the whole game. That proved to be quite tiresome for the player as he didn't know if he could rest. So I went for something more calm and mysterious in the exploration sequences.For the music, I took inspiration from Alien Isolation to create that "omnipresent danger" feel. I lacked time to compose something for the exploration zone so I chose to slightly modify an existing piece, "Gaspard de la nuit" by Maurice Ravel.
Personal thoughts
A lot of fun and a lot of stress. Time management was a source of concern at times, and so was scoping. Which led to many meetings and reevaluations of our tasks. I’ve meddled with almost every part of the process, so I never was bored.
