Hello and welcome to our final production blog for Menacing Mansion! My name is Justin and I’m looking forward to discussing the work we’ve completed during the end of our production cycle. 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. This sprint was focused on incorporating all the work our team has created during the entire production cycle and creating a tutorial for the player to learn how to play the game. If you’re interested in the design of the tutorial area you can read more about it on our designer Cody’s blog here!

This sprint our team focused on finishing any remaining items we wanted to get into the game and creating a tutorial for the player to understand how to play. We noted during playtests players were often struggling to understand battery duration and to search for batteries to prevent them from dying. We also noted that players weren’t understanding the correlation between running out of battery for the flashlight and taking damage in the darkness. With the newly implemented tutorial both of these issues were addressed. 

Modeling/2D Art: 

This sprint we focused on adding the work of our modelers who have worked all production into the game. The modelers were given some small props like plates and candelabras created to add more variation to the rooms around the mansion.  The one major prop we added was a grandfather clock that was created by Justin Wagner to the rooms throughout the maze. We also had an amazing poster created by Logan Fabiani to showcase the game. You can see examples of their work down below!

Level Design:

This sprint level designers focused on making sure all the levels were finalized with the props and mechanics we wanted for the game. As batteries are a consumable resource that players will need throughout gameplay, level designers added batteries throughout the rooms for players to find. Rooms were also tuned to add the various scare events that players will encounter around the maze. We added a mannequin that will watch players and occasionally jump at them. We also made sure the peeper and portrait swap could be located around the mansion. 

Programming:

Our programmers put in a lot of work to get the features we wanted in the game. Adding the tutorial required various new systems to help guide the player to different sections to learn the game. At the start of the tutorial players can look around and explore before one of the doors opens inviting them into the mansion. The programmers also created new effects to help the player understand that being in total darkness will hurt the player. Now when players are in darkness a vignette will slowly creep in before the player begins taking damage. If the player turns on their flashlight or finds an area of light the vignette goes away. We also added a variety of sound effects to the game. The main character has a variety of voice lines that help guide players and monsters now speak to the player as they walk by. 

Animations:

Our animator worked toward finalizing various animations for the monsters and players. For the whisperer we wanted to have a variety of attack animations the player would see as they turned around to look at it. The whisperer calls and taunts you and when you look at it various attack animations play. Unfortunately the animations weren’t ready in time to implement them into the final build of the game. If in the future we begin production to further work on the game we will get these animations into the game to terrify the player!

Conclusion:

It’s been a long journey that has gone by too quickly for the production of Menacing Mansion. Our team worked very hard to achieve the vision of our designer. This sprint we had 130 points assigned and completed 115! With the new tutorial added to the game, more scares and the game loop implemented we have had a very successful production. I’m very grateful to the hard work all of my team members have done. Thank you for all the play testers who have provided great feedback and were willing to get scared while playing. Hopefully one day we can continue production of the game and once again invite you into the terrors of Menacing Mansion!