Shadow People [Survival Horror]

Hi everybody, this is my first game as a dev (I've already worked on another one as composer and sound designer). Three months ago together with my classmate we started developing a first person survival horror for Windows, based on the myth of shadow people.

(link for who doesn't know what they are: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_person)

The game is set in a forest at night and you'll have to find clues about what happened, why are you there and where's the other person you were with. The only item you can use is a flashlight with limited batteries, it will protect you from the shadows but after a while it'll start flickering and dimming, so you'll have to find batteries and try to save them as much as you can.

We're using Unity Free but we're preparing a kickstarter for March to buy the Pro version and we plan to place the game on Steam by October 2015!

We're working together on almost everything but I'm concentrating more on the audio and environment design while he's dealing more with the AI and inventory system. We also have a 3D modeler, a rigging artist and an animator who're providing us with some really scary characters. Feel free to ask any question!

These are some in-game screenshots.





If you like our idea you can check the Facebook page of the game:
https://www.facebook.com/shadowpeoplegame

I'll post updates and new screenshots of the game environment and assets.
Any suggestion will be highly appreciated!

 

Could be one spooky game if done right! A cool feature would be seeing your own shadow for a while, then if you stop and look at it for too long it gets a mind of it's own and attacks you or runs off into the darkness XD

 

looks pretty good so far

 

Thanks! That's a cool idea, reminds me of Peter Pan. Unfortunately at night I don't think you could see your shadow, but we'll keep that in mind for a possible sequel during the day

Here's another quick picture!

 

Here's the backstory for the game. You can read it also at this link: http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/The_Dering_Woods

The Dering Woods, also known as Screaming Woods are situated in Kent. Between the villages of Smarden and Pluckley. They are reputed to be the most haunted woods in Britain and they were given their name because of the many reports of people hearing terrifying screams coming from the forest at night or footsteps and whispers during days of fog. The forest is said to be haunted by the ghosts of the people who get lost in them, in particular the locals mention a suicidal army colonel of the 18th century and a highwayman who was captured by the villagers, pinned to a tree and beheaded. Many from the nearby villages swear to have seen black shadows following them while they were traveling across the forest.

Scientific Research
British physicist B. Josephson has studied the phenomenon for years during his research at Cavendish Laboratory for the Mind-matter unification project, documenting everything in the peer-reviewed paper Quantitative measurement of decoherence: a link between consciousness and group-theoretic characterization of hyperplanes of existence. In a recent interview he criticized the skeptic approach of many scientists:

"The trouble is that the scientific community is not aware of these results because very little of this work is published in journals like Nature and Science, And the work is often ridiculed when it is published in respectable physics journals."

He cites the example of a paper on quantum mechanics by Henry Stapp of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory that contained a reference to parapsychology.

"Physicists have an emotional response when they hear anything connected with parapsychology" he says. "Their opinion of parapsychology research is not based on evaluation of the evidence but on a dogmatic belief that all research in this field is false."

The Dering Wood Massacre

Article on the local newspaper after the facts of 31 October 1948.

The woodland has been the center of attention for this phenomena for many years. On the morning of November 1, 1948 twenty people from the Maltman's area were found dead, eleven of which were children. The bodies were forming a massive pile of human flesh and they didn't present any wound. Many reported seeing strange lights coming from the forest on the night of Halloween, when the massacre took place. The autopsy couldn't determine the cause of death and after few weeks the local authorities ended the investigation without warning the State police, stating that the cause was carbon monoxide poisoning. This behavior raised questions about a possible involvement of the police in the matter at the time.

In 1964, private investigator Robert Collins conducted in-depth witness interviews designed to uncover hints about the alleged activity of an unknown religious cult in the village of Smarden. His research stopped after he died in a tragic car accident the following year.


Cover of the Kent Messenger, Friday November 6, 1998.

The Dering Wood was home for another mystery when during October 1998 on the same night of fifty years before, four college students who were visiting the forest went missing after people from Pluckley reported seeing "light figures similar to spider webs" in the sky. Their bodies were never found and after three weeks, the police investigation stopped.

 

Consider lightening your black just a little bit 10,10,10 or a little more.
It will make the environment look a little more natural.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, we're trying different kind of settings and we're still unsure which one to choose

 

A quick video just for fun showing us while we record the river : )