Dark Paths
Gameplay Demo
About the Project:
Dark Paths is a first-person exploration game where the player acts as a paranormal investigator drawn to a ghost town in the Adirondack Mountains. Records say that the entire population of the town disappeared without a trace in the early 1900's, leaving behind all of their belongings. This artifact features a cabin environment and a mysterious labyrinth that the player must escape to complete the level. In the current version, the player is equipped only with a flashlight and their wits and it is up to them to search their surroundings for notes and other helpful items that will help them on their way. Adding additional investigation tools is something I would like to continue developing in the future.
Tools Used:
Unreal Engine 4.27
Unreal Marketplace Assets: Construction Site Vol. 2, Edith Finch: Molly Room, Free Furniture Pack, Modular Gothic Temple, Infinity Blade Props, Infinity Blade Effects, Loft Office (Modular), Modular Neighborhood, 4 in 1 Modular Research Facility Mega Bundle, Stone Pine Forest
Video Music: https://www.glitchthegame.com/
Highlighted Skills:
- Understanding of common Unreal Engine functions/tools (e.g. materials and textures, landscape and foliage, different types of lighting, UI widgets, trigger overlaps and interactions, line tracing)
- Gameplay design and scripting with Blueprints (e.g. interactions with doors and notes, pulling information from data table to populate note text, pushable objects with axis constraints, flashlight toggle)
- Level design and lighting with basic geometry and imported assets
Game Screenshots:
Game Menu -- Note Widget
Keypad Lock -- Dark Labyrinth
Feature Blueprint Examples:
Interact with Note -- Populate Note Text from Data Table -- Flickering Flashlight Trigger
Reflection:
This project grew from an attempt to recreate a friend's cabin as an early way to practice Unreal Engine and building with geometry. From that building came the idea to attempt making a horror game. Inspired by games like Silent Hill and the novel House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski, I started putting together the idea of a mining ghost town and a mysterious dark labyrinth. I imagined it being located in the Adirondacks since that's where my friend's cabin is also located.
I believe this is the first project that allowed me to practice animating a door with a timeline and lerping the rotation. I expanded on that further by making child Blueprints for doors locked by keys, doors activated by pressure switches, and doors that open automatically. The doors were further enhanced with visual cues for the player by using text components, letting them know when to interact. The initial version also used the Unreal Engine first-person template and gun with an emissive material on the projectile as a light-based weapon the player used to shoot at simple AI enemies that pursued them in the labyrinth level.
In a way, updating this project proved to be a challenge for the simple fact that it's the project I've spent the most time thinking about and it's the on I'm most likely to return to and continue developing after graduation. I could have spent the entire final term focused solely on this. When improving this project, obviously I wanted to spend some time upgrading the appearance of my levels, but I also had a lot of gameplay improvements and additions I had thought of during my GAM 465 class. With these changes I hoped to create a more complete exploration game experience and build up the horror elements present. Besides my desire to make a game that did not revolve around guns and the fact that it didn't feel right for the narrative, removing the gun and giving the player just a flashlight makes them feel more vulnerable and defenseless against what may be in the dark. Although this version does have the enemies removed, my desire is to include a light-sensitive enemy AI that can detect and flee from the flashlight's beam. I also made this change simply to differentiate my project from the default template.
Another feature added to this version is notes that the player can pick up and read, using a widget. Searching the environment for notes containing hints and secrets is a staple mechanic in exploration-type and horror games, so it was important to me to find a way to implement it in this project as well. The text for all of the notes is stored in a data table and can be set for each instance of the note Blueprint. These notes also assist with an additional added feature - the safe and keypad lock with diegetic input. I really enjoy the extra layer of interactivity this brings to the game (and to use for other games in the future). A few smaller additions that I thought were really fun to develop include a trigger volume that causes the flashlight to flicker and a ball that rolls on its own. Certainly nothing complicated...but they definitely add to the horror aspects of the project.
It was actually my professor in GAM 465 who encouraged me to research and push deeper into the horror genre to help influence the direction of this project. As mentioned before, I would like to add an enemy AI that perceives light - though the game is definitely not intended to be combat focused. However, I do think that having some kind of enemy could present some fun opportunities for jump scares. This project also reflects the most I've done so far with working with lighting (different types and parameters). I do recognize it is an area where I can still improve, particularly when it comes to the challenges of lighting a dark scene well, but I hope that my intended atmosphere is still apparent in the project.
