Whispers in the Wood

Gameplay: First-person
Genre: Survival Horror, Mystery
Platforms: PC
Development time: 4 weeks

Roles: Game Designer, Level Designer, VFX, UI

Timeline: 10 weeks

Tools: UE5

Game description

Whisphers in the Woods is a first person narrative mystery game where players must defend themselves against their captor by finding weapons as they're hunted around the room. This game explores story telling through UI and sound design to create an eary atmosphere to build tension as the game progresses.

Game details

GradEx Student Showcase Award Winner

2nd Place Post Graduate Award

Research inspiration

This game started as a research project exploring what about a character's environment makes players perceive them as more or less trustworthy.

Play Testing

After developing the first prototype, I conducted play tests to understand how players perceived the mystery note taker.

Most play testers didn't find the character threatening because they were still able to leave the cabin and they had left them food but they didn't trust some objects they found such as the syringe needle. They also didn't feel a sense of urgency because the timer for the note taker's return was always visible.

By updating the UI to a realistic note, hiding the timer and replacing it with a ticking clock and adding ghost voices of previous victims to warn the player, there was more built up tension as the player progressed. The experience turned into a game where the player has to remember which weapons and healing items are where to survive the encounter when the attacker returns.