This page is Currently a Work in Progress.
What is Decomposition?
Decomposition follows a broken man named Gareth Zeal, who has found himself reaching back to his reclusive brother, Gawain, after years of not seeing him. However, when he meets with him in their childhood church, that is now abandoned, he finds that Gawain has merged with an eldritch seed called "The Rot." In order to keep him alive, the older brother needs to feed Gawain the decomposing bodies of those from the nearby church... However, as he is trying to keep his brother alive, the church sinks deeper into the ground unveiling a strange system of tunnels beneath the ground. Within them, a deeper mystery and danger awaits players. This project is my team's Senior Capstone Project for the Game Design B.S. Degree at Indiana University in collaboration with the Computer Science B.S. for the programming of the game. |
Release Date: May 2025
My Role on the Team
My role on the team has been diverse during this project's 2 year development cycle with me holding many roles:
Producer: Since October 2023
Sound Designer: Since October 2023
Gameplay Designer: Since October 2023
Lead Programmer: October 2023 to May 2024 (Prior to collaboration with Computer Science Students)
Marketer: Since July 2024
3D Prop Modeler: Since September 2024
(All videos, SFX, and images were approved by the team to share on my Portfolio website.)
Producer: Since October 2023
Sound Designer: Since October 2023
Gameplay Designer: Since October 2023
Lead Programmer: October 2023 to May 2024 (Prior to collaboration with Computer Science Students)
Marketer: Since July 2024
3D Prop Modeler: Since September 2024
(All videos, SFX, and images were approved by the team to share on my Portfolio website.)
For a more Detailed History of my Work on the Game, Please refer to my "Production Timeline" Webpage!
First Unity Prototype (September, 2023)
In our Game's first Prototype, I was tasked with two concepts. The first was seeing if a special "BlackLight" that would make objects appear when shined on would be fun mechanically, while the other was trying to build a scary scene based on atmospheric suspense leading to a minor "jumpscare" at the end of the test level. From this experiment, I was able to make a simple Unity hallway using greyboxed walls and cube objects and programmed a simple FPS movement alongside a toggleable flashlight using a script attached to a Directional Light that followed the Main Camera object. |
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To describe more about how I designed the "BlackLight" Mechanic for this Prototype, it was visioned to be used as one of the main tools that Players will need to both progress in our game but will also be the trigger for the enemies to search after them. Whenever it is in use, the BlackLight will show objects and written clues that cannot be seen with normal light. Meanwhile, the longer it is on, the closer enemies will come towards the Players to the point where if the Player has it on for too long nearby an enemy, they may kill them if they are not careful.
To test how this may work, I had made a simple Unity code where if the Player presses “F” the blue light goes on alongside the objects visible only to the BlackLight. It is based on Boolean values where the visibility of both the objects and light are false unless “F” is pressed.
To test how this may work, I had made a simple Unity code where if the Player presses “F” the blue light goes on alongside the objects visible only to the BlackLight. It is based on Boolean values where the visibility of both the objects and light are false unless “F” is pressed.
This code goes into the Camera’s Post-Process Layer as that is where our blue light is stored. Whenever it is “Enabled” the world turns blue and when “Disabled” the world is in it’s base colours. Below is an image of the settings of the Post Process Layer.
First Unreal Prototype (October, 2023)
This video goes into how I had Programmed a Blueprints Prototype testing "Blink and You'll Miss It" scare for a 1st Person Survival Horror Game's Prototype. I had two group mates who composed the music and designed the room layout of the Office it takes place in, as I focused on getting the project programmed with the FPS layout as our template base.
To create this effect, I had inserted a blank trigger block in the Detective scene that our artist, Meghan, laid out and made a Blue-Print within the Game’s Level Blueprint. The "Monster" asset and animation came from Renderpeople's Scanned 3D People Pack with textures being corrupted to look more horrific.
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First Pitch Video (October, 2023)
After spending a few weeks iterating GamePlay Prototypes, we had made an initial Pitch for our game to state our first concept on what we plan for "Castle Decomposition." Here is where we introduced our first idea of the game revolving around the "Castle's Curse" as well as what our idea for Gameplay being focused on a contrast between "Light/Dark" through the use of a "Flashlight" that can reveal hidden objects and rooms to progress the game. Although many ideas from this video were omitted in later iterations, it was our first step in pitching our game to people in the Industry.
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Second Unreal Prototype (October, 2023)
For our second Prototype in UE5, I had focused on creating the feel that Players would have with their interactions with enemies as well as seeing how the PathSensing mechanics in the engine's AI can be used to design our chase gameplay. The main Design interaction that was implemented in this iteration was the concept of the Tapes you collect to progress the story can be altered by enemies depending on how many times they attack the Player during a chase segment of our game.
I had developed a simple Enemy AI that will follow the Player based on their proximity to them and it will continue to follow them continuously once they are caught. Although the AI was difficult for me to learn how to set-up, I had received a lot of help from the PawnSensing Component for Enemy AI to get my Blueprints working as intended. I did tweak the values so that the Enemy will try to sense Pawns based on proximity of the Enemy rather than direct eyesight. |
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Through Blueprints I had then set it up so that whenever an Enemy sees the Player, they will follow them endlessly based on their location within a Navigation Mesh. The NavMesh was made using Unreal’s built-in system and set over the sample map created by my teammates. And when the Enemy does touch the Player, for the purposes of this being a Prototype, I made it so the Developers text on the corner of the screen during Gameplay would print “TOUCH” endlessly until the Player moves away from the Enemy.
Our "Enemy" asset also had come from Renderpeople's Scanned 3D People Pack. |
I had also set up a simple Pick-Up/Drop system for our current prototype using the base Blueprints used in the First-Person preset project in UE5. I had attached this to my First-Person Controller Blueprint and checked my nodes through the Developer Command Prompt saying “Hello” when objects are clicked on and “False” when a pick-up fails. The Pick-Up only occurs when an object tagged with the “Physics Handle” is clicked on using the Left-Mouse Click.
First Gameplay Video (November, 2023)
For our first GamePlay Video/Mock-up I had further explored the concepts I had done for our Second Prototype to show how they would flow within the Gameplay of our "prospected vision" for the game's final product. Although in the next month we had chosen to omit the "Flashlight" mechanics for a more universal "Lantern" object with multiple uses, I had shown it's use in allowing players to see secret paths in our map to hide from enemies. I had also shown the viewing of our VHS Tapes to learn how to progress in the game and its potential to tell the story of our Game's Narrative through what the Player finds around the Castle.
To design this Gameplay video, I had used the layout of Meshingun Studio's Apocalyptic Hospital level asset and gutted it before placing in textures and assets closer to our original concept for a "basement level" in our game. After creating this layout, I had used the Blueprints from above to add in the Enemy AI I had created previously for a prototype and our pick-up/drop mechanics. I had then included our video mockup that I had created in Vegas Pro 21 into the television set through adding it as a video layer in the Mockup video project. |
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GamePlay Mockups (December, 2023)
Prior to presenting our game's Pitch Decks the next week on a Live Shark-Tank inspired event hosted by our department, we needed to showcase our main Gameplay Look in .gif mock-ups. Using the map that I had quickly designed for our GamePlay video with our Artists monster Concept Designs, I had created three Mock-ups using both Unreal Engine for the recording and Vegas Pro 21 for UI and Timing to show three things.
1. What the Lantern would look like in the Game while being held.
1. What the Lantern would look like in the Game while being held.
The Candle assets I had used for the Mockup were from Warren Marshall's Arch Vis Polish Pack #2.
2. What a Chase in the Dark would Look Like in a Finalized Version of our Game.
3. How viewing and pausing one of the VHS Tapes collected in our GamePlay would look like when a Player is interacting with a TV.
Castle Decomposition's Pitch Deck (December, 2023)
For the Shark Tank with Industry Professionals we had to make a Slideshow Pitch Deck for our game. I had focused on applying my Mockups to the GamePlay slides of our project to help describe the basic elements of gameplay in "Castle Decomposition" as well as assisted with editing my Teammates slides and ensuring that it was the best quality it can be before we had presented in front of Industry Professionals.
Below, I have embedded a video of our slides that will run the .gifs that we were using in the pitch we presented at the Shark Tank. I also attached a .pdf version if one would like to look into the slides more closely, however the .pdf version does not play the GamePlay .gifs attached to the Pitch Deck.
Below, I have embedded a video of our slides that will run the .gifs that we were using in the pitch we presented at the Shark Tank. I also attached a .pdf version if one would like to look into the slides more closely, however the .pdf version does not play the GamePlay .gifs attached to the Pitch Deck.
castle_decomposition_pitch_deck.pdf | |
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