Miscreation

Background

Miscreation was made in 4 weeks as part of the PGJam2 $2,000 competition, with the "Horror" jam theme. It’s a 15-minute, 3D first person horror game, where the goal is to navigate a Russian lab and gather intel about the experiments that are taking place. There are monsters lurking in the dark, with puzzles to uncover secrets and a story to explain what happened for this all to take place.

This project was made entirely by me, making the use of a couple free assets, such as environment pieces and sound effects. The programming, animation, lighting, game design and monsters were all made from scratch in the span of the 4 weeks. It was a challenge for myself to build a game in such a short time but my main focus was quality, ensuring that the game was fun and polished with little details.

Game Jam Winning Prize

Miscreation won the 2nd place cash prize for the $2,000 PGJam2, with tough competition. This game was praised by the judges for its story, game design flow and the creepy ambiance that was built up. In this video, I was interviewed by Project Genesis about the creation process and any advice that I could give to any future creators.

The Journey

During the development of Deadzone: Aberration, I was tasked with creating the laboratory as part of the last sequence of the game. Since I was already creating a creepy lab, I decided to join the PGJam2 as a low-stakes challenge. The more I developed, the quicker it turned into a properly fleshed out horror game with fun puzzles and a strong atmosphere to setup the reveal for the creature.

I first started with these original concept drawings for the monster, which was an early consideration so that the chosen monster could impact the story and level design. Since the setting was in a laboratory, the idea was to create an unsuspecting monster like a shapeshifter, turning from a scientist to a disturbing creature for a reveal near the end. Here are a couple of designs for how the scientists should look and what it should transform into. The large, spiny creature was a personal favourite and the design for a melting human face is what inspired the final shapeshifter design.

Intro sequence

The intro sequence is a crucial way to immerse the player into the world and learn the rules and goals. It starts with a brief audio recording about the mission to set the scene and an elevator going down into the lab. The elevator marks the one way entrance and exit for the ending escape.

Problem: Ensure the player understands all controls without a full tutorial and no immediate backtracking.

Solution: The player can only reach the door using a combination of the controls to progress, where it's only open for a few seconds. The door seals the player to guide the direction to go and adds to the tone.

What I learned: Button reminder popups and extra time was added after playtests, which improved the user experience and accessibility for everyone.

Core Goals

The vault door is a large focus for the progression of the game. It hides a monster sealed inside, foreshadowed by the harsh red colours. After flicking each switch, the progress is shown by turning the lights green.

Problem: Create a clear objective without words to open the vault door. Need to explore and solve spread out puzzles to fully open the vault.

Solution: Two main separate paths for switches and progress is made using clues / items from both sides.

What I learned: More contrast with lighting to show the paths of importance really help guide players in playtests. Using more hidden guides really help