Game Vision Statement

 Introduction:

Rigid is a PS1 inspired horror game for the PC, using the Unity Engine to drop players into a mall in which they have been locked in overnight and must search for a way to get out, whilst being followed by mannequins that have come to life and seek to kill you.

Genre:

10 Best Survival Horror Games Of The Last Console Generation from Game Rant

The game will be Survival Horror as you try to narrowly avoid the mannequins searching for you while you try to advance through the game.

Gameplay Description:

The game will have you exploring a section of the mall trying to find anything that might allow for you to get outside. While you wander around the various areas such as stores, security rooms, bathrooms, and more, you’ll be surrounded by an eerie atmosphere as you discover something is off putting about this place. As you continue to explore, you notice objects are appearing in locations they weren’t previously, and soon a mannequin starts to stiffly make its way towards you. You must run to avoid it but soon notice more and more mannequins begin to chase after you. You must continue your search for a way out to both avoid the mannequins and escape the mall.

Mall from Murder House by Puppet Combo from twitter.com

The game will take inspiration from PS1 style horror games with a fixed camera angle, this will give you less sense of security as if you can’t see what is ahead of them then they will experience a fear of the unknown until they take that step forward.

Resident Evil 2 changed my life from CNET

Resident Evil will be a strong inspiration for how the camera works in the game, only letting you see what it wants you to see in a specific section of the mall. This will make you feel like you’re within a tighter space and make you on edge as you hear a mannequin shuffle towards you and you will have to decide either to run or stay alert until it appears on screen.

 The game will feature mechanics such as a sprint so that you can run away from any mannequins approaching you, hiding so that you can slip into lockers or bathroom stalls as a precaution in case you have used your sprint up, and item collection to allow you to unlock new areas and routes to both advance through the game and make traversal through the mall easier. The game will allow you to learn potential hidden backstory through notes and computer logs as to how the mannequins are alive and why they chase after you. Navigate the mall and solve puzzles to help you discover the story, items to aid you in your escape, and a means of escape.

Platform:

The game will be purely created for PC, with no intention of creating it for consoles such as Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo.

Resources:

For this game it will require some free assets from the Unity Store such as a Low Poly 3D model for characters and objects, along with some textures to help create the mall environment. I plan to use Low-Poly Simple Nature Pack to help add plants and maybe even a gardening shop within the mall to give it more of a lively feel, as well as some Low-Poly furniture such as benches to allow for seating around the mall to make it more believable and to create a furniture store that you would be able to explore, along with other stores such as a gun shop and fast food restaurant. I’ll also be using some code for inventory and collection so that you can store items to use for later or in other areas of the mall as well as some code to help create the hiding mechanic so that you could avoid the mannequins if you have run out of sprint but are still being chased. 

Alternatives:

If a mall proves too time consuming to create, I will change the map to a smaller area, either that of a house or a clothing store. The same applies to the hiding mechanic, if the task of creating a system for it is too difficult then I shall change it to make it a scripted event, meaning the edge of hiding from the mannequins is still there without taking away too much from the gameplay.