House of Ashes Industry Brief
this project was created while working with developers from Suppermassive games it is made to replicate the gameplay & style of House of Ashes!
DESIGN GOALS
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Create a vertical slice that captures the feel of House of Ashes
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Create multiple endings based on decisions or failures in the game
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Work with multiple developers with different diciplines to produce a creative & engaging vertical slice
Learning Outcomes
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I learned how to engage and work with different pipelines improvise adapt & overcome problems during development
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I learned to design workflows to help everyone work towards a common goal & meet deadlines
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I learned an incredible amount about level sequence's and branches that helped me produce the different outcomes of the story
House of Ashes
Roles: Lead Gameplay Designer & Producer
Months: March 2024 - May 2024
Genre: Survival Horror
Themes: Ancient mesopotamian temple, horror, multiple endings
Platform: PC
Description
The house of ashes vertical slice was a project proposed by the studio Supermassive games where the year group (artists, animators, developers & designers) were split into small teams responsible for each of the Dark anthology games, my team and I were given House of Ashes and we quickly got to work on a story and gameflow
What I did
In this team project I was responsible for, the gameplay design, creating the cutscene's, mechanic's, different ending's and the overal gameplay, while also managing the team and keeping everyone up to date with what was going on through thorough documentation & constant, clear communication.
Finalized vertical slice
The Project
Planning & Research
Click the pictures to expand them
Before anything we first decided to do a playthrough of house of ashes, as well as a critical analysis on it as well as it's inspirations so that we fully comprehended what we were going to be doing and how best to replicate the style.
This lead me to create a lot of different documentation for the team to ensure everyone knew what we were aiming to do which included an mission design document (MDD), UI / mechanic breakdown's and an asset list with detailed asset request documents.
This documentation paired with clear communication proved very effective in creating a efficient and creative working environment
Creator perspective a breakdown of inspiration and ideas behind house of ashes
A breakdown of the environment and materials used in House of Ashes
One of the Asset request forums made for our artists to help develop their ideas while keeping them in scope
Creator perspective a breakdown of inspiration and ideas behind house of ashes
Quick Time events
These are our replications of the dark anthology mechanics in our vertical slice, we managed to have each quick time event implemented in some forum, but not all of them reached a "finished" look due to the short project timeline.
Each mechanic has a effect on the story if they are either passed or failed using branch checks and the level sequencer to check conditions and play cutscenes based on the outcomes.
You can see each branch in the planning picture on the research & planning section above
The replication of the inspect icon in our vertical slice
The replication of a shoot quick time event
The replication of the heartbeat mechanic in our vertical slice
The replication of the inspect icon in our vertical slice
Click the pictures to expand them
Branch 1
In this branch one of our character's Ethan is hanging over the edge of a spike pit as both the characters have fallen into a trap.
This branch sees Ethan saved, Ethan & Cody then push through the ancient door which alerts a vampire, which they then scare off with gun fire before escaping.
In this branch we showcase a button quick time event, a button mash quick time event and a fire quick time event, the button mash is included in all three branches as it is essential to catching the player off guard when they enter the tomb.
Branch 2
In this branch Ethan misses his shot and the vampire gets Cody, leading to Ethan tripping over a rock and entering into a keep calm mechanic which if successful. Ethan gets the oppurtunity to throw a rock down a tunnel to get the vampire to follow the noise, while Ethan escapes without Cody
In this branch we included the keep calm mechanic right after a shocking scene of Cody being attacked by the vampire leading to his death, this is to add extra tension to the keep calm mechanic as itmakes the player aware of what the vampire can do.
In house of Ashes you see this done to nameless characters to demonstrate to the player that the monsters are deadly.
Branch 3
In this branch Ethan fails to save Cody from the spike pit leading him to fall in, because of this the pressure on the door is lighter meaning the vampire is not alerted and this gives Ethan the oppurtunity to throw a rock down the tunnel to escape the vampire without alerting it.
The button quick time event is the easiest one to succeed, so we chose this branch to be easier for the player so that they still stand a chance of surving which is why the creature is not made alert and does not attempt to attack the player but in return the button mash for the ancient door is more difficult due to their now only being one character pushing it however can be attemped multiple times
Overview
What worked:
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The team worked efficiently & effectively despite the short project timeline we each achieved high marks and finished with a project that we were happy with
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Our project replicated the gamplay & feel of house of ashes with minor compremises, the documentation was also well done and helped everyone fully comprehend the project and thier role within it.
What could have been improved:
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Some animation's did not fit in with the scene's this was due to the fact that at the time I did not know how to properly apply animation in unreal engine this however is no longer the case
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the game lacks voice lines and sounds, unfourtuneatly due to the amount of tasks needed to be done this was overlooked and eventually forgotten about.