Hunted House
Hunted House is a puzzle exploration game. Inspired by Allan Poe’s novel, the player plays as the protagonist who is invited to a party in a fancy mansion, which has seven large rooms of various colors. As the player explores the different rooms, the hidden memories about a cyberbully of the protagonist are awakened, and the player discovers more conspiracy behind the party, which is a game of hunting.
The game art portion of this project involved creating scenes for the seven rooms in the setting, while the game development portion involved creating levels and interactions for the purple rooms using Unreal Engine blueprints.
The game is inspired by the novel The Masquerade of the Red Death, written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1842. It depicts a fancy party held by a prince with guests invited to his castle, which was cursed by the Death, and the prince died after passing through seven rooms.
My plot is set in reference to the novel's setting, where the protagonist is invited to a party held by the boss behind the scenes, the player has to pass through six rooms of different colors: blue, purple, green, orange, white, and violet, before arriving at the dark scarlet room to meet the protagonist's sacrifice.
The novel's seven colored rooms represent different stages of life (blue room - childhood, purple room - youth, green room - the prime of life, orange room - middle age, white room - old age, Violet room - late life, red and black room - death), so I also made certain references in the scene design, for instance, the blue room is the kid's room since it represents the beginning of life, and the purple room is a bar with billiard table, representing the youth.
Game Design
Blue Room
Blue represents the beginning of life in the setting of Masquerade of the Red Death, so I designed the blue room in the style of a kid's room, which is also where the heroine Annie once lived.
In contrast to the childlike environment, the slides and dark blue lights in the room reflect a sense of "weird-core" to create a strange, disturbing vibe. The player needs to collect clues from the cake, chessboard, balloons, rubber ducks, and other items in order to solve the puzzles, find the props, and obtain the password for exiting the room and entering the ultimate "party."
In addition, the player will discover some personal information about the girl in the clues to help advance the plot of the story.
Reference
Process
Purple Room
The purple room indicates youth in Allan Poe's novel, so I set a scene of a bar with foosball, billiard, arcades, which is attractive for the youth. And I designed a sets of large TVs and a pile of huge pillows for creating an unreal cyber-like atmosphere. In this room the player will manage to find the batteies to charge the remote for turning on the TVs and get codes, by interacting with the record player, the guitar,and making cocktails.
The player will get to know more information about the girl such as her last name is Rivers and her liking of collecting records, and revealing the identity as the Knights (a fanatical cyberbullying group) of the player's role.
Reference
Process
Reference
Green Room
This room is themed with pools, slides, and plants, inspired by God's third-day creation of water, land plants, and the ocean. To see the codes on the wall, the player must eat mushrooms to enter a vertigo state, which lasts 30 seconds. The player must keep consuming mushrooms for puzzles while also configuring the antidote to avoid fainting from excessive consumption of psychedelic mushrooms. The player will see the ghostly shadow of Annie while in the illusionary state.
Process
Orange Room
The fourth room's theme is planets and the universe, inspired by God's creation of the sun, moon, and stars on the fourth day. To obtain the password, the player will turn the carousel and follow the hint on the clock to place the candy in the corresponding position on the Ferris wheel. Players will awaken the memory of the girl's shared photo of the planetarium while solving the puzzle of the planets.
Process
White Room
The fifth room's main theme is an aquarium. According to Genesis, God created life in the water and birds on the fifth day, so the scene is designed with many sea creatures and flamingos. The player will interact with the fish in the tank and the birds by feeding them cupcakes on the table, play melodies with the piano to get the password, use the fountain, wine, and other items to obtain props and hints, and recall the message of the girl in the plot while interacting.
Process
Purple & Red Room
The sixth room is mainly for sorting out the plot of the whole story and no more fancy puzzle-solving steps, so this scene design is as simple as possible (inspired by the scene in Twins Peak). The player will compose the entire story by filling in the codes in the book on the tea table based on the illustration hints, and the whole storyline will be connected. Finally, the player will realize that he is the role of the murderer of the girl Annie by cyber-hunting and has to pay a severe price for their sins.
The final room is a cathedral-like dark gothic room, with dim lights in six colors, representing the colors of each previous room. The player realizes that the party he is involved in is a revenge sacrifice guided by the boss behind the scenes (Annie's father). The player needs to crack the final code according to the scenes before if successful, the player will get redemption, if not, will be sacrificed.
Game Development
I choose the second scene The Purple Room for specific game development via Unreal Engine
Item Inspection
The UI of the backpack adopts the design of retro computer dialog boxes, and the background of the interface for inspecting items is decorated with many chaotic dialog boxes and vaporwave-style computers, creating an atmosphere of the collapse of the cyber world for the player, suggesting that the character will be devastated by the end of paying the price of his violence.
In this level, the player enters the purple room, which represents youth and sets a bar scene. and the player must explore the room by interacting with items and props, and the protagonist's identity (The Knight) and memories with the girl Annie (guitar, record store) will be implicitly implied.
The player accesses the lyrics of the record Rivers (the girl's surname) via the clue written on the record advertising, triggering the plot of the protagonist's memories of the girl. And in the advertisement, the player learns how to make DIY vinyl records by scratching an empty plate with a knife and then coating it with black liquid. Next, the player collects and plays a vinyl record, counting the number of times the word River appears in the song (12 times ). The player then selects the number 12 football player in the foosball machine, which results in the acquisition of a battery.
To make cocktails, the player must follow the prompts on the menu in the following order: blue - purple - green - orange - white - violet - red, corresponding to the color of each room in the game. The player must then follow the neon light hints (strawberry and cherry for purple liquid, cherry and lemon for orange liquid) to complete the seven different colors of fluid and obtain the black water.
The player consumes all of the chocolate to obtain an empty plate, then picks up a knife next to the cake and scratches on the empty plate to get a scratched plate, and finally pours the black liquid on the scratched plate to acquire a DIY record. When the player puts the DIY record into the record player, he hears a short melody. If the player plays the melody on the guitar, another battery will appear as the battery lid uncapped. The player inserts two batteries into the remote control, then turns on the TV set with the charged remote to see the final escape code.
The basic functions of the game are implemented in the virtual engine blueprint, part of which is shown below. The functions include collecting items, using items and removing them from the backpack, clicking the magnifying glass for 3D rotating zoom to view items, dragging and dropping items into the scene, UI and model display, prop manipulation and event response.
