SONOPHOBIA
created by students in the Digital Futures Program at OCADU.
Game Pitch:
Player beware! You are tasked to infiltrate a sight stealing, demon worshiping cult. The problem is the demon is real, and they have indeed stolen your sight. In the pitch black, navigate and escape from the Demon using your echolocation tool to momentarily see in the dark, but be careful the more you use it, the more the Demon can see you too! Escaping won't be easy and will require you to find clues hidden within the levels. Play through the story to uncover the truth behind your mission because as we all know, Demons like to play tricks.
Game Description:
You have been tasked to infiltrate a demonic cult that blinds its cult members as an initiation to witness their demonic overlord. You are tasked to navigate your new surroundings using your new sound sonar vision in the pitch-black environment of a building complex. Your goal is to escape the facility without coming into contact with the Demon.
The game is built around the mechanic of seeing in the dark using sonar and the first person immersion provided by VR allows the player to navigate the space with a sense of dread and suspense attributed to horror games. Because the player's sight is being drastically limited they come to rely on directional sound, music cues and the sonar mechanic to navigate the virtual world.
Primarily pitch black with the sonar effect revealing the environment in a gray outline, the game takes place within an apartment with an elevator inside and the room is decorated as if there has been a recent robbery. The only use of colour within the game is used to represent our enemy who is identified using the colour red to stand out from the environment. Use sonar and sound to your advantage to try and complete the objective.
Systematic Breakdown of Components
Start/menu/credits GUI
-press play to start game
-death screen informing player to start level over
-Win screen informing they have completed the level and moving forward
Game Mechanics
-when player triggers button sends out an all surrounding sonar wave to see in the dark momentarily
-player has to view 360 video before entering correct escape door or else player unable to progress
-Enemy pathway and collision for game over
Audio System
-game background music and score
-enemy’s directional sound (distance and direction)
Lighting System
-shaders used for the sonar, and how it masks the environment
Asset Breakdown
Game assets
-The 3 levels for the game from the demo stage hallway, the main apartment room, and the twist ending room
-portals used in-game as elevators to travel from one room to the next
-furniture within the apartment room (sofas, tables, lamps, boarded up windows, the view outside the apartment of buildings, shelves)
-Our main demon enemy
Sound assets
-voice recordings of demon
-music composed for game
Game Flow Diagram
