--Khayalan--

About Project

This is a solo project with a brief to create a gameplay moment that is surprising. The other requirement is to create a shader that uses shader code.

Controls

WASD - move

Left Mouse Button - interact

Artist Statement

I have created my intended effect by sowing mysterious elements at the start of the game and setting the game in a non-human world. The way I responded to the theme of surprise is by juxtaposing the coldness of the robot world to the warmness of the organic realm. The kind of surprise I aimed for is more of a pleasantly surprised rather than a ‘jumpscare’ surprise. I did however, integrate a micro level surprise by using one of the shaders to imply a glitching effect.

I used the hologram shader to create a world building narrative in this robotic world that they are technologically advanced. I also made it so that it glitches more on a specific robot to show that it is corrupted. This is significant to the storyline of the game. The other shader that I used is the spherical mask shader. I used this to create a glitching effect in the robotic world for micro level surprise and it is core to the changing of the robotic world to the organic realm.

The way that I have used repetition, variation and contrast to achieve a micro level surprise is by the use of repeating ambient sound of the rooms but varying the sounds of the robots. This is then contrasted with a glitching noise and rapidly changing visuals to create that matrix glitching effect for a split second.

With the medium-level surprise, I used the repeating matrix glitching effect to showcase to the players that it is intentional and core to the story, this is however, varied with randomness and different glitching sounds. Furthermore, the contrast between the tangibility of the robot’s dialogues from the ones prior to the one at the end allows for the player to uncover more of the story.

Whereas, the macro-level surprise is created by using the repetition of the cold, cramped and negative impression with varying degrees in the robot world and contrasting that with the warmth and openness of the organic realm.

Micro-level surprise - Variations in rooms size, room props, robot type and robot sounds

Medium-level surprise - Matrix glitching effect, tangibility in robot’s dialogue

Macro-level surprise - Changing realm

External Assets

Sounds:

https://freesound.org/people/FiveBrosStopMosYT/sounds/546701/

https://freesound.org/people/MATRIXXX_/sounds/665822/

https://freesound.org/people/neopolitansixth/sounds/613586/

https://freesound.org/people/freedomfightervictor/sounds/390531/

https://freesound.org/people/penisshit/sounds/501154/

https://freesound.org/people/parabolix/sounds/198551/

https://freesound.org/people/mialena24/sounds/364366/