Echoes in the Dark
Unreal Engine 4 Puzzle Game
Puzzle, Exploration
2 Week Group Project
Released June 30th, 2022
Echoes in the Dark is a short puzzle game about using sound to navigate in blindness and solve puzzles, to the purpose of restoring power to a region in war-torn Ukraine. I worked on the project with three others in UE4. Though the project was a part of the month-long Martian Teapots Stand with Ukraine Jam, we started half way through.
Download and see full credits here.
Design
Originally conceived by my friend Archie Short as a puzzle game inspired by the horror game Stifled, the game encourages players to carefully navigate a hazardous environment using a visualization of sound to identify both space and material surfaces.
I became involved early on to handle level design. I created the layout, designed several puzzles, and assisted with level scripting.
Layout and Gameplay Design
The level begins with a brief tutorial to teach players how to utilize the sound mechanics. Afterwards players reach a central room and they must go between two paths and return after completing key objectives to the central room to win. One of the paths routes around in a spiral manner, while the other requires backtracking through a hazardous environment that was previously safe.
Our system of visualizing sound to reveal the environment limited player's view distance in a way that I was able to leverage in creating navigational challenges within smaller spaces.
Our system of different materials giving off different sorts of sounds allowed us to have creative puzzles in which players could identify hostile surfaces like electrified water by throwing objects on them, or identify key items by the sound they made.
