Vapour: Free Indie Experimental Horror Game

Hi guys,

We are Skobbejak Games, literally a 2 man indie team (with ZERO budget), and we've spent the last 7 months with Unity free and came up with a free prototype horror game, we just though that we would share it with the Unity community. Here is a gameplay trailer (which includes a download link in the description):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mpc2BqUiSjI



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Looks interesting, but it's not compatible with 32-bit Windows, so I couldn't play it.

 

Maybe the next Slender!

 

@protopod: Oh no! So sorry man. We will upload a separate 32-bit version, thank you so much for letting us know.

@tatelax: Haha, I would be ecstatic if it were even just quarter as popular.

 

Looks really good! Good work

 

It looks like the playstation 1 small soldiers game in fps. Sorry though it doesn't look or feel scary in any way. I think you may need to revise horror elements in a video games, if you want to gain some good psychological inertia for a video game, look into frictionals breakdowns of horror games: http://frictionalgames.blogspot.com.au/

 

hahaha, typane nice trolling, try being a bit more constructive and try to remember we are not Frictional Games we are literally just 2 people and pretty sure PS1 didnt have normal maps.

Amnesia while being reasonably scary is not the style or approach we were going for and the one pitfall we didn't want to fall into, that amnesia falls into as well as games like slender, is that the degree of your characters vulnerability stays the same when your just running away the whole time, if there isnt a way to fight back your level of vulnerability will more or less stay the same and the novelty of the scares die a bit quicker, plus it makes for boring/1-Dimensional gameplay in the long run. We also wanted a fusion of 90's FPS games like Doom, Hexen and Blood to play with the tension and make you feel brave as well as scared at times.

 

Wasn't meant to come off as rude or "trolling" but this is not a horror game in the slightest. I do agree that frictionals horror is more psychological but even then you avoid any for of explicit or psychological horror. You keep saying 2 man team, no budget and 7 months to complete. I think a lot of people are working like that. I am just telling you that I don't like your game and I could write you out a list of reasons. The fact is my opinion shouldn't matter to you, I am just some random person on the internet so you can just ignore me. If you are truly happy with your game, what I say should not concern you. If my opinion does annoy you, its because your motivation to make said game is for an ulterior motive of money or fame. That or you don't want to see 7 months go to waste. I just wanted to ask as well, why did it take 7 months to make this game? 7 months is a long time to push out a lot of quality work but it seems everything is rather basic for this game. Not saying basic games are bad, its just a long time for little pay off.

 

Your right I dont care you just seemed a bit pissed and I wanted to answer you questions.

 

Typane is giving you good advice, machina. He is giving you criticism. He told you its not scary, and its not. You then say it not supposed to be scary, yet the title is 'Experimental horror game'. Your game is okay for a 2 man team, but for it to be a true horror game or horror survival it needs to build tension.

Tips: Less fog, less light. Nightime. Maybe those fire things give off light themselves, and you use them to see? Make the spawning of the monsters random and unnerving. You never know if your going to turn around and see one. Add in ammo, so you cant just shoot willy nilly, this gives a sense of loss and isolation when the player runs out. He has to think about what he does.

Also, dont use the base unity terrain textures. Get your own, from cgtextures or something. Make 'em look better in gimp or photoshop. Generate a better terrain with unity TerrainToolkit, and then sculpt it afterwards. Dont use the circles brushes, use the circles brushes with a bit of noise added.

YOU NEED WAY LESS FOG. FOG IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE USED TO OBSCURE VISION. MAKE IT SO IT SLIGHTLY CHANGES THE COLOR OF TREES 100m AWAY.

Dont use the excuse 'We're only a two man team'. Use the excuse 'We are new to the software' and then learn more about it.

 

I've created a very successful horror game (was #14 in adventure games, played 2 million times) and here's a little secret to making anything scary.

Turn down the ambient lighting, and boom you have a scary game.

 

Dark + flashlight = lazy, cheap, boring and overdone (not to mention you need to squint too much)
Silent hill and quite a few other horror games does mist, so your game doesnt need to be dark with a flashlight.

While we do listen to everyone's criticism and take it into account, we dont need to take YOUR advice specifically (as you are developers and I know how some devs can be sometimes or just people in general towards something that isnt popular,especially if you are trying to be rude, while giving criticism) cause we have had compliments and likes so there are people that do like it and find it scary. I mean its way scarier than slender, at least.

I didn't mean for any offense, it just seemed typane was intending offense in his 1st post and I thought he was trolling, I apologize if I was being rude, but if you want to criticize at least be civilized.

P.S. Where did I say "being scary" wasnt the point of our game, I dont remember that?

 

Slender is more scary then your game. I did a key paper of investigating experimental psychological horror as horror in video games is my main specialty and is a secondary thesis I pursue personally. Don't try to convince yourself otherwise, I may come off as rude but I am a very harsh critique, even to my own games. The problem is you are not taking criticism and making the assumption that you are not wrong. You have to understand it is alright to be wrong and fail, I have failed multiple times, but each failure you learn something that you will further succeed at next time.

Also I know this is critiques from developers and from a stand point slender was the S***test game ever made because it uses everything prebuilt in unity and can be made in an hour. But no matter how simplistic a game is from a development standpoint, the player will never know. They only care about the core mechanics. Its the harsh reality, I can spend ages creating my own engine in C++ and develop a game that is good from a programmatic stand point but terrible from a gameplay standpoint. Polishing a turd of a mechanic doesn't make the game anymore fun. I would say, prototpying specific mechanics individually and using a speration of concerns would work better in this scenario. Look at the game "hotline miami or Dustforce" both very popular games made in game maker, "To the moon" was made in RPG maker. All these games are incredibly popular yet no one cared about the effort that went behind them. The point is, time spend on a game does not mean the game will be good. I had to learn this the hard way with one of the game I developed.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/130848/how_to_prototype_a_game_in_under_7_.php?print=1 This is a good resource for prototyping games in a short amount of time from the developers of world of goo and little inferno. Keep developing and eventually if you open your mind up you will get there one day.

 

Tips:

Turn down the fog. I know you said silent hill is misty, whatever. Turn the fog down, fog isn't mist. Ill explain this soon.
Turn down ambient lighting. Not to black, just down to twilight or whatever. Right now your game looks like its in the middle of the day. This isn't scary.
Now, for mist. Layer mist in semi-transperant planes with a perlin noise texture on it or something. Layer this planes away from the player. Write a script to have these continually generating. Use world-based fog, if you have pro. All these things will make it look better.

 

I haven't played it, but I did watch the video.

On the topic of the fog: I feel like dense fog or darkness which obscures the player's vision can be a very useful tool for creating tension and fear. Not so much by default, but DEFINITELY when coupled with the threat of dangerous enemies who could be lurking around anywhere. I didn't think your enemies were very scary, either in appearance or behavior, but that isn't to say you don't have any potential here.

The way you have the terrain set up, IMO, looks quite bad. The art assets are decent, but the terrain looked blurry, had poor flow, and had a very "default" look to it. I feel like I'm being a little bit harsh here, but considering the game has been in development for 7 months puts the bar a little bit higher. At any rate, though, it's something interesting and new and I'd like to see where it goes.

Sidenote on horror: it seems like you've given the player a ranged means of attack. if this is unlimited, expect it to be abused and all threat possibly imposed by the enemies to be gone. Silent Hill made the enemies more terrifying by forcing you to cope with horribly clumsy and difficult to control melee weapons to conserve ammo, or to waste it and run out. (Although, and this is unrelated to the idea behind the concept, Silent Hill games typically give you far, far more ammo than you really need so the pressure is only perceived and not so much real)

 

All of the hate by these self proclaimed professionals is really quite appalling. You guys hate on this Devs' creation but I dont see any creation of yours worth mentioning. He made something. You didnt. So why exactly are you hating on his game and pretending you know more than he does?

The Developers took their time to create a VERY WELL MADE GAME, and try to share it with you and all of you come to this thread trying to pretend "You Know" what makes an amazing horror game. And bash his. I have to say, Machinax did a terrific job creating this Indie, not only is it different but its F***ing good. Is it perfect? Well is Paula Dean Racist?

The point is, If you want to give criticism, that's fine. But stating, "The game isn't good. The game isn't scary." Is not in the very least any type of criticism you guys should be giving. Besides, where I grew up, I always learned that Criticism without compliments just make you like an ass.

For me, I loved the enemies, the fog, and the Atmosphere, but it was a little too bright. See? I don't sound like jerk do I?

Furthermore, I see people getting on him because HES PROUD OF HIS GAME. Really? Is that wrong? This project was a two man team, why shouldn't he state that? If I made a game like this, you can be damn sure I would say how this awesome project was done by two guys. Dont get all pissed cause he wants credit. He deserves it.

To sum it up, quit with all the insults of his game. And stop expecting he is supposed to listen to JUST YOUR OPINION and if he doesn't, he is a bad Dev. He took 7 months to create something for us, that is COMPLETELY FREE. It's disapointing when after that, he gets insulted for not doing a "Better Job". The real funny thing is, you guys pretend you know horror, but the reality is, no one has seen or heard of a decent horror game created by you assholes yet. If you have made one, post a link for me, I want to see your professional work. So I can "Critique You". Now what I HAVE SEEN and WHAT I HAVE HEARD OF on the other hand, is this guy's game. And the vast majority of his audience, loves it.

 

I could be wrong but you have 1 post so I assume you are his friend or one of the people that made this. I am brutally honest when it comes to feedback, most everything I have made is really small and quite crap but the more things I make, the more I am able to understand where I went wrong. I am not sorry for my remarks because it is not a well made game. I have nothing in this game I like, I think it all looks awful. It would have been fine for a learning experience but as far as gameplay goes it was terrible. A better way to introduce the game would have been "I have been working on a horror game, can anyone please give me some feedback". But proclaiming that this was amazing and acts as the epitome of horror innovation is what annoys me. The feedback is, don't spent 7 months polishing a turd. Develop a prototype in 4 days, if its not fun, move on. If it is fun, make it a bit more.

So the point that you not get is this. I have made 14 or so games but I don't put them all on the forums for a reason. I put the games I make in a day on the forums as part of game jams. The key reason is this: Developers are critiques, you can't get an unbiased response from a developer so don't even try. I may have 5 stars on everything I have made, doesn't mean it is a good game. It's irony at it's finest.

In the end why do you care what we say. We have all been based and ridiculed before about things we do in life. Get over it. If it means so much to you to be a game developer then keep persisting, if anything all the bad response should be more motivation to prove us wrong. Just don't cry about it and thing for one second that anything you make is good. Always be critical of your own work.

 

7 Months is a long time for what youve shown. I know how easy it is to spend a lot of time going no-where though.

All these horror threads lately have inspired me to hack something together though, just to put my money where my mouth is.

 

I'm in the same boat. I have all this research I can put to use and give some tips on how to develop horror elements in a game both jumpscare and psychological.

 

I just listen to creepy music while i'm working on it.. I find it more immersive and makes it feel more creepy as im working on it.

Definitely gonna use something like this for the background ambience

This ones pretty good... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAP26hS82BU

 

Yes I know this is my first post here, but that doesn't make what I have to say any less relevant! I'm assuming this is the first game you've made in Unity, at least the first one you've released to the public, which if so excellent job. I'm just getting started with Unity after using Game Maker Studio (and its older versions) for years and the things people are doing with it just excites me.

Here's my two cents on this game as is: I enjoyed it very much, from an outside horror fan's point of view it's an excellent game, especially when compared to the onslaught of generic slender knockoff, overly jumpscare reliant, downright lazy games I've seen made.
The graphics and general atmosphere were well done, the animations and effects in the flashes when the monster was near are excellent, the monster in general was well done, even if he/she is just a shadow.
The gameplay was familiar yet different, it was essentially about collecting things similar to other games but the way it was done was better. I especially liked the guiding lights directing us where to go, was a nice touch and should be done in more games, even if people think it makes the game easier, i believe having some direction is important.
I do agree that some more buildup would go a long way towards making the game creepier in general.
A couple gripes I have is that the minor enemies (hands/skulls) don't seem to do much other than slow the player down for the bigger monsters to catch them, I think a better idea would be to have a smaller number of bigger, more terrifying creatures rather than these small annoyances.

Is this game professional level? No, even if it does beat the hell out of a number of full budget horror games I've played over the years.But it does provide some good scares and has some real heart put into it. If I had the money to spare I would gladly donate a couple bucks toward a more complete version, although that leaves me with one major question. The game ends pretty definitively, a full budget version of the game seems almost unnecessary, what exactly would you add should you hit the goal of how much money you need?

 

I really like the amount of detail you have placed in the environment .

 

Did you actually even bother to play the game, Typane? And before you even start: NO, I AM NOT ONE OF THE PEOPLE WHO MADE THIS GAME. Nor am I friends with them in any way. I personally played Vapour, and was fairly terrified. I honestly don't think you even played the game yourself, you just saw the trailer and thought it looked lame. Why don't you at least try to show a little bit of respect rather than being a pissant? Being a complete and utter ass and being a harsh critic are too very different things, which you seem to be the former of. I looked up your stuff, and it is nothing even comparing to this game. And don't lie, you meant to come off as rude; otherwise you would not have gotten so nasty.

XMachinaX, I loved the game. I found it to be highly refreshing and original in terms of game mechanics compared to games like Amnesia. And I honestly have no idea how Typane didn't find this game at least a little bit frightening. I found it rather terrifying. Thank you for creating this, and sharing it with us. I earnestly hope to see more work from you and your cohort in the near future.

-Vebjorn.

 

I am not responding on this thread anymore after this.

I don't mind what your issue is with me, I was harsh because of the idiocracy personified with this post. Most people come into and use a game engine and make something boring and awful because its easy these days. It takes a lot more to make a game then some half assed idea and little to no programming, musicical, modelling or texturing skills. I am an ass because I am sick of utter crap being produced by those who think they have a good idea. News flash, none of my games are good but they all prove a point, I have worked for over a year or a theorem that portrays this. I don't need to be told by some ignorant child that my ideals are wrong. I don't care if you don't agree with me, I don't care if the game is famous or a hit. I think it's good if people like it because it proves that an average Joe can make something. But I do not like it, I do not find it fun and I am sick and tired of being accused and ridiculed because you can't connect two dots. This engine is amazing, I have worked on my own physics engine for some time and its hard god dam work. But not everything you make is going to be great, it takes a long long long time. I have been working for so long on psychological understanding of game concepts, analogies of the discovery process, physics engines, level editors in C++. Its not a testament to my ability. You think that you can keep standing up for a game, then do so, but I have the right to my opinion. Either way, move on, it shouldn't effect you so much. Why do I even pose a threat to you. You question why I am being an ass, its not just because the game was terrible, its because everyone expects praise for all the work they put in. Try 3 years on something that won't ever get noticed, life isn't about expecting feedback or that you are great. Just be humble, there will always be someone that hates your games, just because you are rich, or they can do something you can't, or you think you can do a better job. Just ignore them, but when they have feedback to offer, consider it.

Don't let your headstrong ways put you down. Discredit everything I have worked on and I will work on. I have been put down so much in everything I have ever done. MOVE ON, don't let people influence you. This is not a complaint, be the same way if you want for all I care, but if you ever want to truly succeed in life. Work hard, do what you have to, if someone hates your game, so what, there will always be someone who likes it. Good luck and I hope you develop some more games in the future and your skills improve, as for this game I didn't like it.

 

Why are you so grumpy all the time? They're video games, they're meant to be fun. Though your last bit of advice is very wise. Hard work is always the key to great success. I apologize if I come off as targeting you specifically, you are far more intelligent than I could possibly hope to be, and I acknowledge that. It simply peeved me to see someone put down so harshly. I respect your accomplishments and you as an individual, in my last few posts, I did some thing that I hate most people for: I spoke first and thought later; I used the ambiguity of technology to attack you. I apologize, truly.

 

I am not grumpy haha, I just get sick of seeing the same games over and over as a cheap novelty. I use to do it. Look through the history of the showcase forum section, its constantly horror game this experimental horror that. And they are all pretty awful. Everyone is still on the hype train of slender. I am actually quite a vibrant and happy person.

What annoys me, especially on the other thread I wrote. Is that I did ramble a lot there, simple because I was getting an idea out. That and it was during my nights of insomnia. However modern game development seems like rather cutting issue. Games don't offer any free thought, it is all the spoonfed mentality. I don't mind if people enjoy that, I am proposing a new section to game methodologies that I hope large scale game companies employ. It is the reason why retro games were so nostaligic and why modern indie games so terrific. This whole, I teach myself based on level design. But as I said, I don't mind if you don't agree, there needs to be all types of games because we are all different. I just wish people would open there minds up a bit, apparently I come off as smug and I really try not to. I don't believe I have any form of intelligence I just work very hard to try and achieve my life goals. What annoyed me with this game is that 7 months and this is what you achieve, I beg to question whether they were working hard at all. I don't like seeing people achieve praise for incompetence or the willingness to push hard. I guess what annoys me the most people can become successful with little to no work. So in a sense I am rather hypocritical.

 

I can sympathize. I am not overly fond of horror games, I just happened upon this game by word of mouth. Based simply on Lost Innovation; you have far more gaming experience than I do. It is simply human nature to be hypocritical, for example: I got annoyed with you for being annoyed with XMachinaX and him being annoyed by your criticism. I'm sure you see the pattern there, it becomes a never ending cycle of fruitless arguments and no one walks away satisfied. As I am sure you can tell, I ramble a lot as well. I didn't really like Slender personally, sure: it was popular, sure it was a little scary; but the gameplay felt shallow and after only a few failures, I quit and never touched it again. I'm typing this on only two hours sleep after a nearly twenty hour day; so I'm a bit more....irritable than usual.

 

Yeah sorry if I came off rude. We all have our personal day to day life demons and the worst thing we can do is take it out on each other. I didn't like slender either but I played it subjectively knowing it could be made in 10 minutes. lately I have been putting myself in a different mindset where I try to just play a game as if I don't know how to do anything but its rather difficult. I do acknowledge this game on this post to be alright, but in no way did I feel like it was a horror. Although I am a hard customer to please, I didn't find amnesia that scary although I acknowledge that it was because if its design. The only reason I believe that too is because I have been concurrently writing a psychological fear thesis. I guess the more you live and breathe it the more of an immunity you gain.

I have to start being a lot more humble myself, I am far too naive and grumpy for such a young age, haahaha.

 

Oh, that's perfectly fine, Typane. As I said before, even taking out our frustrations and aggression out on other humans is simply our nature as creatures of habit. I'm horrible at creating games, more of a story-writer myself. Hell, I'm more of a poet, honestly. Me + Technology = steaming piles of rubbish. I found Amnesia to be slightly scary, but I'm more of an RPG kinda guy myself, like I said: I'm more one for story and history than for amusing gameplay or jump scares.
The best we can do is try to better ourselves in whichever way I see fit. I too, need to stop being so grumpy and gruff for my age. I'm guessing that both of us are far too young to be so bitter and exasperated. I hope we can start fresh, should we ever contact each other again. I'm going to try and conquer my own insomnia, slumber well; or have a nice night depending on what time it is where you live!
Apologies for spamming your thread XMachinaX.

 

ditto

 

If I may make some suggestions, I've played many a horror game and I think I know how you guys can make something with great potential into something epic.

1. Sound is EVERYTHING in a horror game. Don't change a thing. Having only the sound of crickets is paramount to the feeling of isolation you've built. I think the only thing that would make it creepier is if you could only hear the character's breathing, but that's been overdone.
2. Draw out the first encounter a little bit. When the character can get the first scary encounter just under 2 minutes in, it doesn't give the game time enough to build that suspense. Maybe for the first few checkpoints you can have the camera point in a direction but instead of something coming up, the character can see something in the distance or hear a noise, until a set time when the monster will actually come after you. The minimum time someone should play before an encounter should be about 5-6 minutes.
3. After picking up the first green light, put a message onscreen letting them know that they can actually use that with the mouse. Most of my friends didn't even know, and I only just found out by accident about 20 minutes ago on another playthrough.

Other than that, great work guys, you disturbed the hell out of me and caused temporary insomnia again, just a little bit of advice from what I think would make the atmosphere and overall experience better. It's great already, but with a little refinement, it could be absolutely amazing.

EDIT - Also, for some reason, I'm only getting about 19-24 fps when I play, even with the graphics turned down, and I have a 3770k and geforce gtx 670. Is low frame rate an intentional development thing to conserve resources or should I be worried about my rig?

 

Hey Guys, My name is Ryan and I have just played Vapour for the first time. It was really good, just not what I was expecting.

Here is my first play through - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCJk6ysSinI

 

Lots of good play throughs on YouTube. I've not played the game but some of the reactions are great.

 

I thought the layout in the environment was done pretty well. Not too empty, not too packed. I agree with some others that some texture work maybe would have given the game a bit more depth. You should be proud of your game. T

ake comments for what they are, which is purely comments. I'm not a huge game developer, but Ive been in the music business (film scoring lately) for 5-7 years and criticism is what it is. It's very beneficial if you take it in the right light. Not an easy thing to do though. Took me years to finally take criticism in a positive way.

All in all, keep on doing what you're doing. Keep on improving. Keep on developing.

 

Well, I make tons of experiments ,but I have to say that none of mine re on this large of scale or this good.

 

Jesus, this thread is one of the best examples of how not to give and receive criticism. Come on people, let's be a little more mature, shall we?

As for the game:
- Solid graphically but I agree that the fog is a little overdone. More frustrating than scary.
- Your trees are clearly identical, and I know that's a fairly inevitable consequence of using Unity's lacking Terrain system but considering their ubiquity in your environment consider using alternate means of vegetation.
- It is not scary, as some people have said. Fear is one of the more difficult emotions to evoke which makes me honestly wonder why so many beginner developers choose horror as their genre. It's hard.

 

I loved the reaction videos on youtube you know it's a good game if PewDiePie is all "OH WHAT THE F*CK?!"

 

I really liked the fog effect, how did you get it to slightly have some noise in the density? Is that a shadder applied to the built in fog?