Focus | Danavanderwalserious

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Focus

TECHNICAL/GENERAL DESIGNER

Focus is a 1st person horror game that uses mirrors as its main mechanic. Players will need to use mirrors to find information as well as keeping track of the thing hunting them.

The monster of the game can only be seen and stopped (in its movement) via those mirrors.

The game is set within a building full of mirrors and your objective is to escape from the building and the monster.

My contribution

Concept design

This game was made by 4 designers. One of my strong points is concepting ideas. I like the creative side of game design. I believe locking down an initial idea after the research is important. You need to start building and testing the idea to know if it is good. The concept of this game was very strong and we quickly knew what we were building.

Technical Implementation

For this project, I did all the technical implementation. We needed a 2 room system since we wanted to create different layouts for each side. I create a system where a pawn replicated the movement of the player in a mirrored manner, this way the player has the illusion they are looking at a mirror.

This game taught me how much I actually like doing technical work. I was the only one they could rely on to implement the game. Seeing the game come alive through my hard work was great.

UI/UX

I implemented and balanced the UI element of the game. This includes the menu and monster feedback. Horror games require a balance in tension and release. I worked closely with the level designers to smooth this cycle out.