The F.O.G.
ROLE
Game Designer/Narrative Designer/Level Designer
ABOUT
The F.O.G. is a first-person horror game, by using environment and music, pushing the immersive scary experience to the maximum. The game is made with Unity Engine. It’s currently in active development and the demo’s ready to play. And please provide feedbacks, thank you!
YEAR
2022 Summer
GENRE
Horror
PLATFORM
PC(Windows)
CATEGORY
Personal Work
FULL GAME DESIGN DOCUMENT
DOWNLOAD
PROJECT TYPE
Individual
STATUS
Demo Available
Active Development
CORE GAMEPLAY MECHANICS
The main gameplay consists of exploring new areas, collecting items that are important for both progressing in the game(reaching the next stages and pushing through the storyline), and putting the story together. Players will need to collect certain items to progress in the game such as keys and keycards. One unique feature of The F.O.G. is that players have the option to take shortcuts, which means they can find a secret path to the next stage, but players will miss information that should be gathered through the process of collecting such items. The background story won’t be given to the player directly but needs to be explored throughout the game. Do notice that pieces of information for players to collect are not only simple background stories but also clues for what players should do next to progress in the game. The ultimate goal of this game is to escape from this facility, but the result might vary depending on players’ actions.
GAMEPLAY
FLOWCHART
USER INTERFACE DESIGN
In The F.O.G., the user interface is designed in a way that can be easily understood by players. The whole UI does not need an extra tutorial to explain to players what the element on the HUD means, it’s very much self-explainable. Interactive buttons for mobile users are drawn in a way of representing what their actions are. For example, grabbing is represented by a hand.
INTERACTION DESIGN
Interactions in The F.O.G. are limited, such as activating certain objects and physically grabbing or dropping something. Because The F.O.G. is a game that mainly focuses on story-telling and building the horror environment in the most subtle way possible, I consider that too much interaction might cause the player to lose the immersion feeling. However, current interactions include activating (usually electronic devices or magical objects), grabbing and dropping objects that a normal adult human can grab, and basic movements like walking and running.
PLAYER EXPERIENCE DESIGN
Narrative Design
The F.O.G. is based in a fictional space.
Wilson is a normal 6 to 9 worker like most of us. After a long day of work, Wilson finally is able to get on the road and head home for the Christmas-long break, but the static going on the radio and the thunder roaming outside make him feel something is wrong. Wilson’s car broke down in the middle of nowhere. While the road ahead has been destroyed, Willson has no choice but to look for help in a nearby grocery store---The Fascinating Ordinary Grocery aka The F.O.G., only to find out there’s nothing but blood in the store. Willson saw a note left by a shop worker, saying he was going to the bathroom, seeing the bloody handprint on the bathroom handle. Wilson decided to call the police, but there was no service. Wilson feels uncomfortable and tries to walk out of the store just to find the door that has been locked behind him. Wilson now has no choice but to go into the bathroom and find out what happened here. Just the second Wilson stepped into the bathroom the light started flickering and went bloody red and then dark. Wilson felt overwhelmed by darkness, and under great pressure, Wilson passed out. When Wilson wakes up, he’s already in an elevator leading to a mysterious office. Wilson hesitated a bit in the elevator and finally decided to go out and explore the office. A bright green exit sign gave Wilson some hope but those hopes were destroyed when Wilson saw nailed wood planks sealing off the emergency exit. With no other choices, Wilson has to go into each room and try to find something useful and figure out how he even ends up in here. Wilson collected a new fuse and repaired the broken electric box in the maintenance room and heard someone talking from the conference room. Wilson quickly rushed into the conference room and found out it was just the projector playing, though still haven’t seen anyone. Wilson figured he was in some sort of secret government agency or something according to the presentation he just saw from the projector. Just when Wilson was trying to piece everything together, the elevator rang like it was waiting for him. Wilson then walked into the elevator and headed to the lower level. After a 5 minutes ride, the elevator arrived at its destination and Wilson walked out of it just to find out he had gotten into some kind of laboratory. Wilson saw a reception table and saw some flyers on top of the table, he curiously picked one up and found out it was a PDA with all the needed information and maps of this facility. But just as he walked out of the office, he felt a dark shadow lurking behind him…
PERSPECTIVE GOALS
The Player will play as Wilson to explore and solve puzzles in order to escape from this nightmare. There Are two different ways to complete this game, either the player can collect all the information and items needed to proceed to the next level or the player can take the shortcuts, which will directly take the player to the next level without needing to collect all of the pieces, however, this doesn’t mean that the player won’t get to know and experience the story. The whole story structure is designed as players who collect and read every pieces of information will see the full picture of this story while players who take the shortcuts will only get to see parts of this story, but at the same time, those pieces of stories can be put together and also be understood as a whole. Environment & Narrative Design
My goal for The F.O.G. is to build a horror and depressive atmosphere without using any A.I. ghosts or monsters chasing the player. By using lighting and visual implications, The F.O.G. gave players a horrifying and depressive environment. For example, warm colored lights indicate areas that are relatively safe, while cold while lighted areas are those unexplored and “dangerous” areas.
The ultimate goal of F.O.G. is to be felt like a complete physiological horror game, it heavily relies on sound effects, music, environment, and narrative. There will be constant narrative in-between scene transitions while the player is exploring to guide the player and provide background information.
