3:00 am Dead Time, a new kind of horror game

Hi everybody. We are very proud to announce the new game from Irreverent Software™ : 3:00am Dead Time, which will redefine (we hope) the way you see horror games.

And finally here, the Teaser Trailer :

Would you like to spend a night at a graveyard? Would you like to know if the ghosts and other paranormal beings are real? Would you like to see a UFO, an alien, or maybe even a poltergeist? Do you think you have the guts to face your worst nightmares and the scariest places at the demons hour, at the Dead Time? Then, you are welcome.

​

As you can see, we are trying our best to make a top quality game. It is harder because we want it to have the best graphics possible, while being down-scalable enough to run smoothly on low end machines, and without excesive graphics lose.

​

We are aiming to recreate and honor the most famous and scariest movies, series and home videos, in order to achieve the most shoking and immersive videogame ever. This game will not be for kids, nor sensitive people. It will be your worst nightmare. Also, this game will feature smart systems for image and video record (record, not export), in order to analyze the evidences. You will be able to record, analyze and filter audio in order to hear some psychophonies. It will feature realistic scenarios and characters too, as well as an adaptable environment, which changes and reacts different every time you play it. Our team really wants to bring the best paranormal experience to your Pc.

• Be part of a paranormal research team, as they travel all around the world looking for the most shocking and terrifying evidences
  
• Rich and detailed scenarios, from haunted houses and castles, to forests, crop fields, graveyards and the misterious Area51
  
• Record videos, take photos, place recorders and lights, analyze the evidences and prepare for the encounter of your life.
  
• Spectrum1.0™, the AI system of the game, is a very smart program that reacts different every time you play the game, and learns from you in order to scare you with what affects you more.
  
• Interview the locals, and hear their stories. They have many to tell.
  
• Featuring a tactic gameplay similar to Rainbow Six 3 or Swat 4, it will innovate the way a terror game is played.
  
• Chose the right members to go with you in each mission, and invite mediums, demonologists and other specialists in order to help you to capture as much evidence as possible.
  
• Have encounters with many different paranormal beings and phenomenon, not only ghosts, but demons, ghouls, aliens and more. See creepy graveyards and even crop circles in this full and rich game.

​

A close up of a Rod​

But we have some trouble, as you can imagine, with our regular jobs. Thats why this game will be crowdfunded. We need the community to help fund this project, so two of us can work full time on it, and we can purchase the Unity Pro Engine. As you can see, it looks very well right now with Unity (Free), but Pro will give it the last bit of quality. We also need to purchase some tools, like microphones to record the sounds, and better cameras to take the videos we are using as references for the game. It is a hard work.

We need at least 25,000 dollars, so two of us can work on the game six-eight months, and release it on Q1 2013. If you want, you can fund right now, or wait to see the first trailers and gameplay. All of the funders will be included on the game credits and will have access to the closed beta as well as to the finished game, and everyone will be able to share their personal paranormal stories on the Dead Time community, as soon as it is online. The top 5 stories will be included as playable levels, and their owners will be fully recreated as 3d characters of the game (if they want to ).

If you want, Fund the game here

Now, you can also fund us on indiegogo with this link : http://igg.me/p/182642?a=902435


Prepare for a experience like never before, a game with the scariest places to see, and the most shocking encounters. It's not a ghosts game, nor a thriller game. It is real terror, made game.

​

Paranormal evidence filtered to be clearer.​

Now for you members of the Unity Community, all of the images here show early graphics and gameplay, entirely done on Unity Free. All the models and shaders were made by ourselves (the night vision effect is very hard to achieve on Unity Free ). The ghosts and other beings you will see on the game are done with many different techniques, then the ghost will not be the classic white semi-transparent meshes. It will look like the real ones (as real as we know). I am also trying to implement real-time image and video filters to work inside Unity, so you can filter the evidence to make it clearer while playing.

We are currently on research and collecting material as references for the game. This means, we are collecting/making/recreating photos, psychophonies and videos from all over the world.

I will be posting here, on this post, every single update that the game has, with photos, videos and audio. Our team keeps making the free resources that we promised, and a new pack of shaders and models will be uploaded next week. You will find them on our website.

We will post weekly updates on the game development, to show the process and the new scenes and levels we are developing. As soon as we can, we will also post videos showing beta gameplay, the menus, and the final look of the game. Keep an eye on this post.

Please, follow this project. We have too much material waiting to see the light.

Stay tuned.

EDIT : Thanks to a JamesArndt reply, I'm following his advice (as well as the advice of some others here, and I will try to improve this post)


----- You will receive missions, and will have to go to record paranormal activity on specific places for your own TV show, "3:00 Dead Time".
----- Before each mission, you will select the team members you want to take with you (just like in Rainbow six). All of them have their own abilities. You will be able to pick up cameramen, light and sound managers, a main reporter, one or two specialists to help you, etc.
----- Then, you will select your equipment.
----- Once in the site, you will need to interview the local people to get information about the case, and set up all your equipment to start filming. Then the events will start. They will be very different and some could be lethal, but there's no real enemy.
----- The objective is to capture as many evidence as possible, because you will receive points based on the number and quality of the paranormal evidence captured. With those points, you will buy new team members, new equipment and new locations in other countries.
----- The AI system we are working on, is designed to generate paranormal events on the fly, using anything on the scene and generating its own phenomenon, so there will be always new things to film and to be scared with.


And we need Unity Pro for :

----- Post effect filters. We need all the filters for the camera, some scares and effects, the needed heat distortion and the reflection/refraction on some environtment elements.
----- Real time shadows. Think of a horror game, based on ghsots and other paranormal beings without shadows. It will reduce the terror amount a lot.
----- Deferred lightning. We will have a lot of lights on the scenes, and currently it is very hard to optimize with forward rend. Also, the lightmaps on Unity free don't support bump-map nor specular, if they are not on deferred lightning.
----- Oclussion culling. Even if we have alredy designed a simple oclussion system, a built-in one, tested and fully functional is needed for some complex scenes of the game.
----- Support for videos and audio filters. This is pretty obvious. We need the audio filters for the paranormal sounds, and the video support for the cutscenes and other in-game videos.
----- Render to texture. In order to send the camera image to the edition process, and have up to four cameras on screen at the same time while playing, and have their images on the monitors.

We also need the money to :

----- Purchase some needed tools for sound and video recording, because we use real videos took by us as references to the game. And we have now a hard time cleaning up the audio we record with our current microphones.
----- Pay website hosting.
----- Pay some other expenses related with this game, and other tools used for video editing, music design etc.
----- Buy better hardware to test and make the game. Hardware with directx11 support if possible.


And I have seen the trailer for Slender and don't worry, just the trailer is similar, and only because every real-like paranormal video is similar. The game will be a world apart.

 

Sounds cool but i think it would be much more effective if you make a kickstarter account or post the link here if it´s already there.
Good luck with your project

 

Thanks!

I tried to set up a kickstarter account, but as far as I know, they don't accept projects from outside USA. However, as soon as I can I will try to set up a Desura alpha funding account. By the moment, we can receive funds by Paypal only. The game is under development, to be released on february.

Thank you for the advice, I will try again on Kickstarter to see if they have changed their terms .

Oh, and I'm also looking at indiegogo, to set up a profile there.

 

Sorry but I can't see it. I don't even see what kind of game you wanna make or anything. Just a long text without any real insights or plan.

Well, then I suggest you add two zeros to your funding, at least.

Good luck anyway ^^

Depends on how you define "outside" USA. Iran and stuff like that might actually be a problem . So like "Well, we plan to make the most realistic atomic bomb simulation game ever"

 

Thanks for your kind words, but I want to explain something a little clearer :

First off, Kickstarter says on its terms that you must be a US resident in order to receive funds, have an US bank account, and have other US citizenship requirements. So, I can't have a kickstarter account.

Second, it is a myth that a good game needs a lot of budget. There are plenty of tools that are cheap, and can give awesome results with good work. The artists and programmers ability defines a game, and represents around the 80 percent of the overall result. An example : Unity Pro 1500 dollars, a full Unreal license around 500,000 dollars, and both can achieve very good results if you have a good team. If you want a clearer example, look at Doom. It was the one of the best games of its generation, and innovate the gaming in so many ways, that it is still being copied (at least, on its gameplay), and it didn't have a lot of budget.

Nowadays, people has the idea that graphics are everything on a game, and put aside gameplay. We will put focus on gameplay, as well as in graphics, to offer a better overall experience. And don't worry, we know our own limits, and when we say we can achieve this with 25,000 dollars, is mainly because we're very confident on our team's ability. Their work will be enough to make this game awesome, and the tools will only help them to make it faster, and to give it the last bit of quality. And, by working full time, I mean around 14-16 hours a day, so it's plenty of time to come with something very good that will surprise you.

Thanks for your commentary, and remember to watch the trailer this Sunday .

 

Here it is , the first game trailer. See it and please, give feedback.

 

From the video footage, the game looks remarkably similar to "Slender" in regards to the perspective and visual presentation. Will this be a first person shooter where the gun will be visible? I'd like to know a bit more about what genre the game will be classified under. Seems like a hybrid first person horror title.

 

The game is a first person horror/thriller game with a heavy focus on tactic gameplay. You will manage a full team of paranormal researchers, and you will ned to organize them and give them instructions to record evidences and survive paranormal encounters. You will be able to set up cameras, recorders, etc. in order to capture evidences. You can have a better look on the game full features on its indie DB profile here.

I will post the full features of the game as well as new screenshots here soon. Thanks for your comment.

 

A new image from the game, more like a concept artwork. we don't know if it will be included on the final build, but for now, we thought we should share it. What do you think? Does it looks real enough to think is legit?

​

 

Hmm I dunno this project might have an uphill battle to fund $25,000. The web site looks kind rough and not polished, so it kinda gives folks a little hesitation about how serious you are about your project. Secondly, as was mentioned before...I noticed immediately in the trailer how similar it felt to the Slender project on these forums. Slender has and is already getting some pretty big publicity, so it might be tough going in their footsteps. I have a good feel for what your trying to accomplish in a broad sense. I think what's missing are all of the specifics....like what type of characters will you be playing as, what types of environments will you be playing in, how will you achieve things, can you die, will there be enemies to "defeat"? Some other questions too go unanswered, such as...you mention needing Unity Pro for advanced effects and such, so what effects do you want to use that Pro requires?

You're also missing the biggest thing to a serious project which is a Game Design Document. All of the things I just mentioned would be included in a GDD. Anyone who actually intends to finish a project to completion would have a GDD and some concept artwork. These are the things I think you need to fill in ASAP if you want to have hope of funding this project. I'm not trying to be negative, just realistic so you can fix the issues and get this bad boy made into an awesome game.

 

I agree with James above me. I think Slender is pretty major competition for you right now and probably therefore was not the best time to release this game.

 

nice perks. shows a real amount of thought has gone into your campaign.

 

Thanks for the advice. Right now, I'm going to make myself more clear :

I don't know the game Slender, so I can't tell if it is similar to our game. But here is our plot :

----- You will receive missions, and will have to go to record paranormal activity on specific places for your own TV show, "3:00 Dead Time".
----- Before each mission, you will select the team members you want to take with you (just like in Rainbow six). All of them have their own abilities. You will be able to pick up cameramen, light and sound managers, a main reporter, one or two specialists to help you, etc.
----- Then, you will select your equipment (cameras, recorders, lights, microphones, amulets, movement sensors etc,)
----- Once in the site, you will need to interview thw local people to get information about the case, and set up all your equipment to start filming. Then the events will start. They will be very different and some could be lethal, but there's no real enemy.
----- The objective is to capture as many evidence as possible, because you will receive points based on the number and quality of the paranormal evidence captured. With those points, you will buy new team members, new equipment and new locations in other countries.
----- The different specialists and team members can modify the evidence you see. For example, bringing a demonologist gives you a better chance to see a demon, but reduces your chance to see a ghost.
----- The AI system we are working on, is designed to generate paranormal events on the fly, using anything on the scene and generating its own phenomenon, so there will be always new things to film and to be scared with.


And we need Unity Pro for :

----- Post effect filters. We need all the filters for the camera, some scares and effects, the needed heat distortion and the reflection/refraction on some environtment elements.
----- Real time shadows. Think of a horror game, based on ghsots and other paranormal beings without shadows. It will reduce the terror amount a lot.
----- Deferred lightning. We will have a lot of lights on the scenes, and currently it is very hard to optimize with forward rend. Also, the lightmaps on Unity free don't support bump-map nor specular, if they are not on deferred lightning.
----- Oclussion culling. Even if we have alredy designed a simple oclussion system, a built-in one, tested and fully functional is needed for some complex scenes of the game.
----- Support for videos and audio filters. This is pretty obvious. We need the audio filters for the paranormal sounds, and the video support for the cutscenes and other in-game videos.
----- Render to texture. In order to send the camera image to the edition process, and have up to four cameras on screen at the same time while playing, and have their images on the monitors.

We also need the money to :

----- Purchase some needed tools for sound and video recording, because we use real videos took by us as references to the game. And we have now a hard time cleaning up the audio we record with our current microphones.
----- Pay website hosting.
----- Pay some other expenses related with this game, and other tools used for video editing, music design etc.
----- Buy better hardware to test and make the game. Hardware with directx11 support if possible.


I hope this will make the game goals and aims clearer. Thanks for the advice guys, and we are trying to improve, cause this is our first big title, and our second game ever.


EDIT : I have just seen the trailer for Slender and don't worry, just the trailer is similar, and only because every real-like paranormal video is similar. The game will be a world apart.

 

Yep. And we are currently thinking about something more to give our funders. Keep in mind that this game will not be a expensive one (if you see, with only 5 dollars of fund you are getting a copy and all of the previous betas). Obviously, this is exclusive for funders. Our goal is to have as many followers as possible, and that many people give us a little help. With all those little funds, we could achieve our goal (5000 people funding five dollars and we are there )

The first beta comes next month.

 

/sarcasm

 

Okay. Thanks for your comment anyway (thanks with no sarcasm ).

 

Can't help but just raise so many questions on this so called "most horrifying project"... But here it goes...

Firstly from watching that trailer... the first 2 minutes of it, the only thing I could make out was the player looking at highly saturated green grass... okay fine. When I noticed you're looking for a funding of about $25,000 I just blankly looked for a second. Thats a large number (if you already didn't know that), and for what you're doing, I'm not sure how high your hopes are to reach that even if you decided to go with kickstarter. But anyway, moving on... After reading your requirements to license Unity Pro, I sorta snickered to read that shadows apparently add a tremendous amount of scare factor in video games, Uhm... okay... I suppose its fair to say that you need Pro for other reasons other than scary shadows so ill let that slide.

Your aim is to make a horror game with the highest graphics possible, I'm not saying you made the wrong decision to pick Unity, but do know that this engine won't do the work for you, I say this because judging from the current screenshots, this game looks about 7+ years outdated, possibly around the time Doom 3 came out (and earlier). You said you wanted hardware that supports DX11? Buddy... Unity doesn't even support DX11 yet, and when it does, I'm about 99.7% sure that you will not utilize it properly... its not something that you just enable and it makes your game look like Crysis, if only development worked that way.

The whole aliens, UFOs, ghosts, and what not you mentioned in the post is anything BUT scary. Be realistic when it comes to developing games, cause we all know its one of the hardest forms of entertainment to create, it doesn't work. I will say however the idea behind this is not bad, it has potential... IF you had a legit team... of programmers, artists, audio artists, etc. And I'm just curious to know how many bodies are working on this project (and of what age).

I'm doing anything but bashing this project, I think it has potential, but from the way its being presented, I only see negativity (and also from previous comments too ^_^).