Hello everyone and welcome back to another production blog of a Menacing Mansion! My name is Justin and I can’t wait to detail all the amazing work our team has been putting into this project. For those of you who are new to the production blogs, Menacing Mansion is a horror game that uses procedural generation to provide the player with a different experience of scares and monsters each time they play. During sprint 4 we have been trying to improve our existing systems in the game to improve the player experience. If you’re interested in the design process during this sprint check out our designer Cody’s blog here.

The most important things we wanted to focus on during this sprint was adding more scares to the game and adding in more rooms to the maze.  Our newest scare added to the game we’ve named the Peeper! The job of the Peeper is to loom in the doorways as players are exploring the maze. Its glowing red eyes have been catching many players off guard! The Peeper adds more variety of the scares to the game apart from the picture swapping which requires the player's interaction to occur. With the addition of more rooms to the maze the game is beginning to resemble the design we’re trying to achieve.

Modeling:

Our modelers have continued to create amazing pieces our level designers can use to fill out the rooms in the maze! This sprint our designer wanted more variety when it came to the lighting for the rooms. While this game will be dimly lit and will require the player to use a flashlight we still needed more lighting for our newly created hallways. We also felt that the textures for the walls of the room needed to be readjusted to look cohesive with the props that fill out the rooms. Our modeler Justin Wagner was able to create too new sconces for our level designers to light the rooms with. For our upcoming pentagram room our modeler Logan Fabiani was able to make a very thematic occult book!

Level Design:

During this sprint we began implementing the rooms our level designers have been working on into the maze to vary up the layout as players explore. We’ve added a mortuary room to the maze and will have a ball room, wine cellar and library added into the game soon! With our 3D modelers working so hard these last few sprints our level designers have a variety of props they can fill out rooms with to help create a scary atmosphere for our players. Our level designers have been adding multiple sources of light around the room via candles to increase visibility and help establish our games aesthetic. Below are some pictures of the work our level designers have completed. 

Programming:

Our main priority this sprint was to add another scare for the player. Our designer came up with the idea for a looming shadow in doorways that sneaks up on players we call the Peeper. Its red eyes are visible from multiple rooms away as it states at you. Our programmers did an amazing job implementing the vision our designer had for this scare into the game! Many systems needed to be created to accomplish this scare. A script was created so that as players roam from room to room there is a chance that the Peeper will spawn in a doorway. There were some updates for the picture swapping scare, now when the picture swaps the lighting in the room is blown out leaving the player in darkness. We’ve also added an effect that as the player is in darkness they are attacked by monsters in the dark. Unfortunately the damage when in the darkness doesn’t take into account the light from the players flashlight so players will still take damage even when they are able to see with their flashlight. The darkness feature is a high priority to have working for our next build!

Animation:

From the initial designs of the game there has always been the expectation that there will be a monster that will roam the maze and chase the player when they see it. Our animator Juan Vargas has been working very diligently on giving life to this monster! As our monster gets close to the player it will be slashing and trying to eat the player. Once the player has taken enough damage the final thing they will see in their dying moments will be the monster as they consume them. We are working very hard to bring this monster into the game so players will be worried if it will appear as they turn a corner in the mansion!

Conclusion:

During this sprint our team made amazing progress! The team was assigned a total of 167 points and they completed a total of 110. Now that we have the addition of the Peeper we will continue to add more scares for the players to encounter and run from. We will also be working on implementing more story elements and help the player understand what they are trying to accomplish while playing. I’m truly grateful to our team for all the hard work and amazing progress we’ve made during this project. Thank you to all the support and suggestions from all of our playtesters! Look forward to future development of the game as we post more blogs about our terrifying creation of Menacing Mansion!