2023
Development
Torn Apart, 2023, is a survival horror game where the player gets caught up in a family curse and must collect body parts to appease the ghost. The game intends to be an exploration focused eerie adventure in the style of old horror games with fixed cameras. The goal is to find all three body parts while surviving monster attacks, and return them to the body of the ghost preventing you from leaving the house.
I created this project in Unity for PC and handled the design and programming. The music, sound effects, and 3D assets used were royalty-free.
The level is built with the intent of a non-linear experience where players can explore the haunted house and collect body parts in any order they like to lift the curse and escape. To avoid tedious walking across long hallways, I designed the level around entering rooms through doors accessed through the main hallway which acts as a hub.
Resources such as ammo and health kits are spread out to create tension and have been play-tested and iterated on to ensure they aren't frustrating. Keys must also be collected to access certain areas.
One of the big challenges I faced was ensuring the player didn't get lost while also maintaining the non linear design. My solution was to lean heavy on environmental design to guide the player. Blood is one of the big markers I use to inform the player if theres a body part nearby. Other uses of blood includes receiving a bloody key that must be used on the door with blood all over it. Through this design the player can feel the sense of exploring on their own while invisibly being guided so they aren't lost with respect to what to do and where to go.
Torn Apart from the get go was a project I made to focus on my level design skills. It took a lot of testing and iteration to accomplish the type of design I wanted. I also put a lot of focus into the atmosphere, creating a sense of uneasiness and dread through carefully placed camera angles and unsettling environments.
