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EstherLearn more Genre: Psychological horror / Walking simulator / Atmospheric Platform: PC Windows Role: Game Designer Software: Unity Game Engine
Esther is a psycological horror game inspired by Hideo Kojima’s PT for Silent Hill. Control a protagonist who arrives back in her foster home in order to reconcile with her deceased sister.
About The Game:
This short game was created to capture the horror atmosphere. More than overused jumpscares, the game uses audio the eeriness to keep players on the edge of their seats.
Esther, we may believe as the antagonist of this tale, is the deceased sister whom you as the player are trying to look for.
Over the summer I wanted to practice my level design skills and my overall skills with unity. I wanted to push realism as far as I could on the Unity engine. I decided to start developing and designing a horror game. Esther takes players in a strange home that steps into two parallel worlds. The game introduces the main character as she steps into her past trauma from the horrific tragedy that took place within her household.
About The Game:
This short game was created to capture the horror atmosphere. More than overused jumpscares, the game uses audio the eeriness to keep players on the edge of their seats.
Esther, we may believe as the antagonist of this tale, is the deceased sister whom you as the player are trying to look for.
Over the summer I wanted to practice my level design skills and my overall skills with unity. I wanted to push realism as far as I could on the Unity engine. I decided to start developing and designing a horror game. Esther takes players in a strange home that steps into two parallel worlds. The game introduces the main character as she steps into her past trauma from the horrific tragedy that took place within her household.
Design Goals:
Keep players on edge: Every moment of the game needs to keep players engaged.
Utlize the PT style of repetition but once, to not make players not fall under the stereotype.
Immersive sound: Utilize the left and right sounds to bring tension to players. Building tension withought a jumpscare.
Lights are the key: In horror games light is very important. It is also important to not make the game too dark. This design goal was set to help in reminding me to use lights as useful tools for navigation.
Post Mortem
What went well:
Player’s feedback: Upon completing this verson of the game, I noticed many players found the sound in the game was spot on. They felt on edge all the times due to the different creeks and ambient noises in the background.
Audience: When it comes to putting games on Itch.io I didn’t really understand the market at
the time. The game made it to the top 10 popular horror games that year, and top 10 new and popular games on itch.io which was pretty exciting especially from creating this project to explore the genre.
What didn’t go so well:
Bugs: Upon releasing the game, through the many youtube videos being made, I noticed several bugs happening throughout the game which had me panic to try and fix them all all in the same day. This shows how important it is to have playtesters before releasing any project. However, at that time I did not understand its importance.
The door problem: Ah yes, the door problem strikes once again. I think is a lot of horror games and in games in general we see this problem happening. This was the case in Esther, where there were too many locked doors. This had players walking into and trying to open every single door. At that time there wasn’t even an indicator for whether the doors were locked or not. Lesson learned.
Keep players on edge: Every moment of the game needs to keep players engaged.
Utlize the PT style of repetition but once, to not make players not fall under the stereotype.
Immersive sound: Utilize the left and right sounds to bring tension to players. Building tension withought a jumpscare.
Lights are the key: In horror games light is very important. It is also important to not make the game too dark. This design goal was set to help in reminding me to use lights as useful tools for navigation.
Post Mortem
What went well:
Player’s feedback: Upon completing this verson of the game, I noticed many players found the sound in the game was spot on. They felt on edge all the times due to the different creeks and ambient noises in the background.
Audience: When it comes to putting games on Itch.io I didn’t really understand the market at
the time. The game made it to the top 10 popular horror games that year, and top 10 new and popular games on itch.io which was pretty exciting especially from creating this project to explore the genre.
What didn’t go so well:
Bugs: Upon releasing the game, through the many youtube videos being made, I noticed several bugs happening throughout the game which had me panic to try and fix them all all in the same day. This shows how important it is to have playtesters before releasing any project. However, at that time I did not understand its importance.
The door problem: Ah yes, the door problem strikes once again. I think is a lot of horror games and in games in general we see this problem happening. This was the case in Esther, where there were too many locked doors. This had players walking into and trying to open every single door. At that time there wasn’t even an indicator for whether the doors were locked or not. Lesson learned.