Condemned
A jealous maid takes drastic action when she discovers the Lord of the Manor, whom she is in love with and works for, is due to be married.
My Role
Game Designer, Narrative Designer, 3D Artist
Team
Anton Renouf, Wenlong Yan, Rei Yamada, Jason Lian
Tools
Autodesk Maya, Adobe Substance Designer, Unity
Timeline
Fall 2022 - 3 weeks
Prompt
Create an interactive, compelling narrative experience for VR.
Initial Thinking
Early on, I decided to make a tense thriller / horror game inspired by Hideo Kojima's P.T. The simplicity of only using 2 rooms with the environment and mechanics telling the story meant the team could keep the scope relatively small. I also liked the use of the radio as a means to give context in different scenes and eventually revealed to have had a significant role in the murders that have taken place.
The clever use of lighting, ambient sounds and contrasting colour created a distinct sense of atmosphere in Hideo Kojima's PT (Playable Teaser)
At first, I was interested in making a detective story. The player interacts with the environment and each time they do, a piece of the story is revealed, much like the VR experience We Live Here. The player would then piece together, using the information they have gained, to solve a crime. However, we soon learnt that writing detective fiction is very difficult and not achievable in the 2 week timeline.
The simple, intuitive interactions of We Live Here allow guests to become more emotionally connected to the characters in the story
After some more brainstorming, I became intrigued by the possibility of getting the player inside the head of someone who is mentally unstable. I came to like the idea of a serving woman working in a Victorian manor who is in love with the Lord of the Manor. When she discovers that the Lord is getting married, in a fit of rage and jealousy, she murders the bride. I thought this could be interesting as this serving woman could never marry the Lord due to social rules at the time.
Development
I wrote the script, designed 3D models and created a convincing, ancient wooden floor texture for the room.
Experience Script
3D Design
Reflections
The most valuable takeaway for me from this project was how difficult story can be to tell in an interactive medium. In many games, the problem of ludo-narrative dissonance is very prevalent. We wanted to avoid this and capitalize on the interactions to serve the storytelling.
I also learnt a lot about the importance of creating a shared, unified vision within a team. There were many ideas being proposed, which sometimes led to confusion of what we were making. When I wrote the script, the consolidated the idea and successfully created a clear vision we could work towards.