February - May 2024
IDM Master's Thesis
Unreal Engine
Figma
Blender
Motion Capture
Designer
Developer
CG Artist
The game is influenced by a range of real life events around the world, from the Stanford Prison Experiment in the United States to the case of Dr. Yang Yongxin in China. They all contribute to the three central themes of the game: Abuse of power, Surveillance, and Faith. Here, I will be analyzing three most influential cases.
Florid Dozier School for Boys, a school for troubled teens that abused their students for more than a hundred years.
Yang Yongxin, a Chinese clinical psychiatrist, is known for using shock therapy to treat teenagers for game addiction. He's gained large public support, even obtaining the nickname Uncle Yang.
Agapé Boarding School, a Baptist boarding institution in Missouri that admits troubled teenagers, claims to train their students so that they only turn to God for help.
The backstory is inspired by a variety of film, literatures, and games.
Stories that take place inside a confined space featuring protagonists trying to get out are not new. Many existing films center around the topics of mental asylums, surveillance, and abuse of power. However, a game that simulates a confined reform school isn’t as common.
Outlast is a classic example of a survival game featuring a protagonist trying to escape a mental asylum.
The demo level would feature a subconscious hub, an exploration of the school hallways, fighting a few enemies, before moving to the top of the building for the final boss fight.
The main character is modeled after a very stereotypical teenage boy of a reform school, around 15 years of age. The outfit choice follows that of the Agapé Boarding School students: the bright orange shirt and gray trousers. The orange color not only draws on the classic US prisoner outfit reference but also allows players to easily identify the protagonist from the background of the school
The order the enemy appears in should represent a progressive learning curve. We start with the dummies in the tutorial hallway, featuring enemies that aren’t mobile and cannot attack
Then, a melee attack enemy appears, posing a slightly higher challenge for the player. If the player wins, they would also be awarded the melee the enemy has been holding, which they could then use to fight the next sword enemy. The idea of for the player to gradually gain more power to fight more challenging enemies.
Finally, after learning all the skills for this level, the player encounters the big boss, implementing everything they’ve learned to defeat him.
