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A Shot in the Dark

Short Pitch

A horror stealth game about exploring a derelict spaceship and rescuing civilians

Links

About the Project

My Roles

Programmer (Gameplay, UI)

Team Size

11 People (3 Programmers)

Development Time

10 Months

Engine & Language

Unreal Engine, Unreal Blueprints

Platforms

Windows

Long Desciption

As a rescue operative, you and your teammate must enter derelict spaceships and evacuate the survivors you find aboard. The fate of these lost souls rests on your shoulders.

But why was the ship left adrift? What else will you find on board?

... What else might find you? 

Game Type

3D Co-op Stealth Horror Game

Project Context

Student capstone project, turned indie game

Presented at PAX Aus 2024

What I Did

My Roles:

  • Gameplay Programming

  • UI Programming

My Responsibilities

  • Creation of UI systems and menus

  • Voice line and subtitle system

  • Creation of leaderboard and scoring systems

  • Creation dynamic layered music system

  • Bug identification and patching of core systems

UI System Creation:

One of my primary duties for A Shot in the Dark was the creation of UI menus and related systems. This includes the main menu, pause menu, defeat screens and victory. The largest menu system is the leaderboard and scoring system. This is a page which displays how the players of A Shot in the Dark have done compared to a baseline. Each playthrough tracks the player's time taken, sounds created, and other values, which are displayed on the victory, defeat and leaderboard screens. 

These leaderboard values also get saved and loaded locally.

 

Dynamic Layered Music System:

Another notable system I worked on is the music system, which tracks the state and distance of the enemies from the player. As the enemies get more alert and closer to the player, the music system changes which music track layers are playing, and makes them louder.

Voice Line and Subtitle System

I also made a system for voice lines to play in the game, with the option of subtitles. This includes both an intercom, which gives feedback to the player about what they should be doing, but also the brain box that the player rescues, which responds to what the player is doing and its environment.

Game Screenshots

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