The Start of something new

This is the first of hopefully many development logs. The idea came about after thinking of something smaller I could produce on my own with a focus on just a couple of things, that being Unreal Engine's Lumen lighting system and a focus on story telling. I feel that every game I make should be exploring something new, or grow my experience in a certain area. I want to deliver something that players will enjoy and connect with on some level.

The Story

 The story is still being written but the general outline is this:

The player (Jess) is looking for a job and lands an interview at a company. After being interviewed she gets the job. However because her partner works insane hours, and they only have one vehicle Jess is left to find her way home on many nights. She eventually get offered a ride home from her boss, however, he ends up knocking her out and kidnapping her. When she awakes she is tied up in his basement. The player must help Jess escape his house before he finds her and kills her like he has done in the past with other women he has hired.

The story is loosely based on actual events that involved people that I know. I have received permission from them to incorporate these experiences into a game. While it may be based on a real life event, the story will be greatly exaggerated.  I want to create something that is intense that doesn't rely on monsters, ghosts, or anything super natural. I want the fear to come from something that can really happen in the real world.

Features

While I'm wanting to keep things rather simple, there will still be a hand full of features and mechanics for players to enjoy.

The list so far includes:
Light Puzzle solving
Cat and Mouse Stealth Mechanics
Narrative Choices
Immersive Environments (Things to do that don't really effect the story
Minimalistic UI
Light Combat
Voice Acting

Some Stretch Goals are:
Motion Captured Performances
Narrative Branching (Multiple Endings)
Light Crafting

Progress So Far

So far progress has been mainly focused on building levels and some basic features, such as interacting with light switches and anding some audio to opening an closing doors. While I may have some experience, I am not a 3D artist nor am I an animator. Because of this I am mainly relying on assets that I can purchase or that I can get from the Unreal Marketplace and some AI generated images for concept art and a temporary logo.

The building of the Apartment level took several days to get it in the state that it is in now. I started off with just the general block out of the overall apartment, getting it's rooms in place and windows. I didn't want the apartment to feel big, a single one bedroom apartment felt appropriate for a couple living in a big city where only one person is actively employed.

I started going through some Assets I already owned from the Unreal Marketplace and free assets Epic Games provide for developers to use in the UE games.  As stated before I wanted to focus on using Lumen for this project to handle the lighting so I borrowed the free pack from the Matrix Demo that Epic allows UE developers to use as buildings out side of the apartment. I then edited the Blueprints to cut out some of the extra fat to hopefully take some of the rendering load away to optimize performance. however, with nanite enabled, I don't think that a lot of resources were saved given how powerful Nanite is.

The light from the buildings provide a lot of ambient light that fills the apartment when the lights are off and even when the lights are on. I wanted to make sure the cameras auto exposure was tuned off to have more control over the lighting. This created some interesting issues however. When the lights were turned off it was impossible to find the light switches to turn the lights on. Even though the light switches, when looked, pop up a interaction icon, it was still difficult to locate them to begin with. What I did was create small little lights near the light switches and matched them to the ambient light. With some adjustments, it looks like ht e light from outside is actually reaching the light switches and the effect, at least I think, is seamless.

In all the Apartment could be considered "done" however it's a little to "perfect" for my liking. It doesn't feel lived in, so the next steps for the apartment is to "dirty" it up. Will that be the next thing I work on? Probably not, but I have it as a task in my project tracker so Iwill not forget about it.
Here are more Images of the Apartment Level as it stands:

What's Next

Right now I want to focus on putting together enough elements to have a trailer. While it wont be a traditional vertical slice, I think it will serve as a great way to showcase the feel, and direction I want the game to go in.

There isn't anything playable at this moment that I want publicly, so in the meantime you can check out the Apartment is a explorable state by watching the video below.

Thank you for your support and taking the time to read this blog post!

I'll see you in the next update!

- Neil