Unity Echoes in the Dark is a short atmospheric horror game demo that requires the player to utilize sound and light to evade enemies and navigate a treacherous underground maze. Me and my team member Ethan Sutley produced this game for our Game Design & Development 1 class final.
I handled all of the scripting and shader work for this game. I worked in Unity’s built in pipeline, and for this project, created a custom lighting model so I could have granular control over how different light source types worked. For this game, that was extremely important, as the primary light source (and sometimes only light source), is a spotlight the player carries. We wanted this game to have harsh shading, stylistically inspired by Mike Mignola’s Hellboy.
Gameplay
The player takes control of the Spelunker, an unfortunate soul who has fallen into a long abandoned mineshaft. With no way to climb back out, the Spelunker needs to go deeper into the dark caves in hopes of escaping. However, in the depths below the mines there live strange creatures that do not take kindly to being intruded upon.
The game’s key mechanics and features are enemies that react to sound created by the player and in the environment and first person shooter gameplay utilized for puzzle solving. As the player navigates the confined underground levels, they must use the sounds created by their footsteps, items, and weapon to distract enemies and avoid being attacked. As the game progresses, new enemies are introduced that detect the player’s lantern, as well as enemies that act as beacons for others by generating sound and light.
Gamepad recommended
- Left Stick (WASD) to move
- Right Stick (Mouse) to look around
- Right Trigger (LMB) to fire your weapon
- B button (E) to reload
- X button (Q) to toggle your lantern
- Y button (Space) to listen closely to your surroundings
