Update 1!

23/05/2024

House Development.

Today I’ve decided to start the dev-blogging, so there’s a bit of catch up to do.

Basically we are working on a horror game set in rural Australia, inspired a bit on the areas we lived in during childhood.

The game is set in a remote old mining town, that is seeing a possible resurgence from a new valuable material recently discovered in the old gold mine. Similar to how some tiny towns suddenly have lithium mines now.

A lovely vista!

The game will use a similar fixed camera style to the old resident evil and silent hill games, but the camera’s aren’t fully static.

Most cameras will track a players movement, like how a security camera in the corner of a room could follow you around, and for larger areas we use the same system, but the camera runs along a spline to follow the player as they move, such as for the open areas of the town.

Spline traced over in red so you can see it, the camera remains a distance behind the player, following them along that spline, and turning to follow their action as they move further away.

At this point in the development we’ve got a few systems implemented, mostly the various camera types, some rain and weather effects, and have tested a few environments with dynamic sound to really help get that spooky vibe in the houses.

Building the world.

A work in progress.

Modelling in unreal has been a really valuable tool, I’ve learned a bunch from doing this, from spacing stuff out using the simple blocks, to actually using the modelling tools, boolean function on the models has been amazing, and you can even sculpt meshes right in the engine if you’re wanting stuff to not be flat. It’s really great.

So using these tools, and a variety of assets I’ve managed to get a hold of from the epic library (lots of really great free assets there) I’ve been able to start putting things together.

Here’s a few shots of some of the interiors so far.

Next up is working on finishing decorating the second house that I need to finish putting a demo together, then adding some more systems, reading books, hitting switches, and some basic melee combat, simple horror staples.

There’s always a lot to do, and I’m sure these area’s will get a bit more detailed and fleshed out as I go on too, especially with some proper lighting as it’s very basic at the moment.

I’ll try to keep this updated as the work goes on!