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1. High School Reunion

In this horror-mystery immersive narrative, we as the Protagonist is a famed professional medium. An old school friend, Jordan, hires her for her 'physic' abilities, after claiming his newly-purchased housed is haunted. When she explores the house, and communes with the ghosts, she ends up uncovering much more then she bargained for.

As a 5 member group we were tasked with using Unreal Engine to create a Virtual Reality interactive world revolving around a theme of our choice. We decided on basing our narrative around horror and thriller as we felt that it would be the most fun and interesting in a VR setting.

Due to the limited time and that we were self taught by using the very limited resources on youtube, reddit and forum pages, we decided to remove and cut down on a lot of our planned interactions and story. We decided to focus and turn this 'game' into a interactive walkround experience instead. We made 3 levels, the lobby, the living room and the basement, we also added a few jumpscares and interactions. With the main interaction being a piano that has playable keys, and when the player interacts with the piano, it will cause a bookshelf to slide and open revealing an elevator that leads players down to the basement level.

I was tasked with creating the piano and bookshelf interacton. I also did the introduction scene that was meant to be played before the game started.

We only had from October to December of 2023 to complete this new version and make it in time to be showcased for Ngee Ann Polytechnic's 2023 openhouse, where students who came to visit could try this immersive narrative. In 8 weeks we managed to teach ourselves and explore Unreal Engine as much as we could. The general consenses during open house is that, students who tried or who were just watching managed to get scared a lot of times and they found the interactions with the piano and secret elevator thrilling. Overall we would consider this interactive narrative a success.

Planning Stages

Initial Floor Plan

The very first draft of the horror house where the events will take place in.

Floor Plan Version 2

Second version of floor plan with added details and mechanics. Created this floor plan in Unreal Engine and tested in Virtual reality only to realize it was completely off scale.

Floor Plan Version 3

While testing in virtual reality, I as the user in the VR headset pinpointed the walls and corners in the virtual world while a teammate used tape to mark out the walls. From there version 3's floorplan was created.

Floor Plan Final Version

Added some minor tweaks to the main floor plan. Added more details and mechanics that can help the story.

Initial Story Planning

Rough story plot, game mechanics and interactions.

Finalized Story Plot

Confirmed story plot. Includes game mechanics, interactions and objects needed to elevate the plot.

Colour Palette

We associated the horror and thriller theme with dark colours and lighting. Especially the colours green and red. Hence using dark shades of green and red to signify gore and blood. Red also helps to instill a sense of threat.

Inspiration Board

We took inspirations from many horror and thriller games and movies. One game we drew inspiration from is Phasmophobia, a multiplayer game wherein players enter houses in search of the type of ghost haunting the area.

Mood Board

The mood board contains reference pictures to how we wanted the house and its interior to look and feel like.

Initial Layout

This was the layout based on the initial version of the floorplan. Multiple areas were not reachable in VR as the scaling of the map was not in the correct ratio as to the VR scale.

Final Layout

Manual adjusting of walls while a user was in VR helped accurately scale the map.

Final Living Room

Layout of the living room. Green boxes are points of interaction.

Piano

This is an interactive piano where if players touch specific keys they can trigger and cause a secret bookshelf to reveal itself.

Piano Code

The main code to allow every piano key to be playable. Keys are also set in corresponding to their actual note.

Special Piano Code

Coding for the 4 special keys that when pressed will allow the bookshelf to move and reveal the secret elevator. When interacted with, the keys will also show a red light.

Bookshelf

The bookshelf upon being triggered will move to the right and reveals an elevator.

Secret Elevator

This is the secret elevator that can bring players to the basement level.

Basement Layout

Contains items like corpses, CCTV screens and multiple newspapers regarding the case which helps to elevate the plot.

Jumpscares

Created jumpscares by animating models to crawl out of the bed the minute the room's door is pushed opened by players. Red lighting helps to create the mood.

Introduction Scene Breakdown

I used After Effects to create an auditory intro scene. Players will hear the protagonist reaching Jordan's place. The idea is to let players imagine the scene themselves hence elevating their immersive experience.