Playing House
Solo Project | Dying Light | Fall 2024
"Welcome to my playing house, stranger."
Playing House is a single-player Dying Light horror level where the player is trapped in a weird hospital and invited by the sounds of a mysterious girl to play together.
The player must avoid the attacks of biters and screamers, find hints to go through the correct door, and parkour through the distorted space to escape the hospital and return to reality.
Base Parameters
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1 main quest.
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1 interior space and 1 exterior space.
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11 rooms in total.
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10 minutes to complete the main gameplay.
Design Goals
Goal 1
Unique "Portal" Mechanic
Goal 2
Clear Flow/ Conveyance
Goal 3
Immersive Horror Aesthetic
Goal 1: Unique "Portal" Mechanic
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The initial concept was to create a horror hospital space where each door teleported players to other spaces to trap them inside the building.
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I set up a series of rules for the "Portal Door," teaching and challenging the player to learn this mechanic throughout the entire level.
The Teaching Moment
As soon as the player enters the level, a long hallway leads them to the first portal door. This is the only way they can leave the space, and within the hospital-styled environment, the wood texture door stands out from all the white doors.
The Normal White Door
The Portal Door
Bright light to attract the player to interact with it.
The First Challenge
After the mechanic is introduced, the player meets their first challenge of figuring out which door is correct to escape the current space.
I placed two sets of conveyance in this room to hint players at the correct answer—the cat statue and the graphic printed next to each door.
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The Cat Statue
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The statue is placed in the center of the player's viewport when they enter the room.
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High-contrast light on the cat statue attracts players' attention.
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Cat statute looks at the correct door.
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The Graphic Next to Doors
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The graphic near the right door shows an object inside this room: a cat.
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The graphic next to the incorrect door shows an abstract, meaningless picture intended to confuse players.
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I used warm light as an extra affordance to attract the player to the correct door.
The challenge increased as the level progressed.
As players progress through the level, the portal door challenge rises and is combined with more elements.
The cat statue and bloody handprint hints are all inside the same viewport.
Cost of Failure
When the player goes through the wrong portal door for the first time in the level, they are sent to a safe room with another cat statue looking at the door.
Goal 2: Clear Flow/Conveyance
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Since the level is set in darkness, I mainly used the high contrast between light and shadow to guide the player.
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Bright lights are on the critical path. The clues to solving the portal door puzzle are also highlighted.
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There is colored light on special objects and points of interest.
Lights leading to critical path
Circular Flow – I wanted the player to see the goal (keycard) first, then find a way to get to it. I used blue lights to attract players' attention to the ventilation duct, and when the player takes the keycard, they can unlock the door and return to where they started.
Goal 3: Immersive Horror Aesthetic
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I divided the entire level into three phases to create an immersive horror aesthetic.
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Phase 1: The interior looks regular.
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Phase 2: The interior looks regular but includes some floating/unusual items.
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Phase 3: The interior gets crazy with things that don't happen in the real world.
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From the beginning, I wanted the player to know this space is unusual. To achieve that, I added jumpscare scenes to phases 1 and 2, placing them on the critical path to ensure players encounter them.
Set the Tone – When the player first enters the level, I put a little girl inside the elevator to attract their attention, and the moment they walk towards it, the light goes off, and the environment changes. It conveys to the player that something is wrong here.
Combined with Gameplay – I placed horror moments with environmental changes to scare the player when their attention is on "completing the quest." It is also effective to ensure the player encounters these moments.
Environmental Storytelling
In addition to jumpscares that react based on players' actions, I also implemented a series of environmental storytelling moments in the level to encourage and reward players for exploration. These moments also further tell the dark stories inside the hospital before it became a haunted space.
There is no way to decide the winner anymore.
Design Process
In the early stages of the development process, I encountered a conveyance issue with my portal door puzzles, which is also the main issue that I managed to fix in iteration. With only the cat statues as the conveyance to the correct door, I soon found out that players got confused about which door they had just picked because the appearance of the two doors was the same.
Portal doors that look the same.
As a first step, I added different decals on each door to help differentiate them. A sentence from one of my playtesters inspired me: "There is a bloody handprint inside the room, so I think I should pick the bloody handprint door. "
I then implemented more decorations into each room that were related to the decal on the correct portal door. With both the cat statues and decoration related to decals it reduced players' confusion and effectively communicated which door links to the right path.
Gallery
Postmortem
What Went Well
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The aesthetic of the level really created a creepy and spooky feeling. I spent significant time looking into the editor to figure out how to script all the special effects, and lighten up the space that allows players to see the target while retaining a sense of horror.
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I got many playtests during the development process, which deeply helped me to set up a suitable conveyance language to support a better flow.
What Went Wrong
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The existence of the cat statues as conveyance didn't fit with the narrative of the space.
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Combat could have been more challenging throughout the level. Since the entire level is set at night, it was hard to balance the amount of supplies. It would have been better to have consistent supplies near quest objects.
What I Learned
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Sound plays a significant role in setting up feelings of horror. It is effective to combine sounds with visual effects to create jumpscare moments.
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It is important not to hold strong onto my original ideas but to iterate or change them based on players' feedback.
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I spent a lot of time trying to teach the player the mechanics of the cat statue but found out that even though 50% of the players understood it, the other 50% got lost and had terrible experiences with portal door puzzles. The confusion was reduced after I set up a second set of clues and marked each door differently as extra conveyance.
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