Horror is a subject that I find particularly fascinating, and even was the theme that motivated me to get into Level-Design. As such, I made several experimental horror maps for the game Garry's Mod.
- Nightmare (2016) -
The Nightmare map is a short solo horrific adventure on Garry's Mod where the player wakes up in a house in the middle of the night. The objective is then to survive until dawn while a serie of strange and creepy events occur. The intensity of these events will gradually rise, raising the global horror level and becoming more and more dangerous. If the player does not survive, an alarm clock goes off and the night restarts.
The experience having a low replayability in its core concept, I decided to make the events semi-procedural. For instance, some don't happen in the same spot or at the same time each game and some could be triggered during one game but not during another, being replaced by a different event.
The experience relies mostly on atmosphere and not that much on jumpscares, with some events being very subtle in order to create an almost imperceptible discomfort (objects changing locations, barking dogs, stains that appear etc.).
Nightmare map video teaser
- Paranormal (2015) -
Paranormal is a serie of two horrific co-op maps for Garry's Mod in which a group of players must escape from an abandoned place. The maps are non-linear and players have to find keycards in order to unlock all the areas and then escape.
Thoses places are filled with paranormal events occurring randomly and that are made to destabilize or hurt the players. However, the "ghosts" lurking in the map do not act like enemies but each have specific behaviors where they appear.
At the start of the game, the players appear in a security room in which they have access to the security cameras, sometimes allowing apparitions to be observed. They also have a transportable ghost detector with three colored lights that activate depending of ghosts proximity. This tool may seems reassuring for players at first glance, but in fact it greatly contributes to the rise of anxiety among players. Indeed, most of the time the darkness of the environment is such that the LEDs light up before the detected paranormal event is visible to the players, creating apprehension or even panic among them.
In order to create an even more intense horror experience, each paranormal event as well as the keycards' spawn locations are random, making each game unique and totally unpredictable. In the same manner, the players' spawn area that may seems safe at first glance can be attacked by aggressive spirits if players stay there a little too long.
The first map of the Paranormal serie is an abandoned penitentiary and the second one an abandoned luxurious hotel.
Paranormal first map video teaser
Paranormal first map gallery (Penitentiary)
Paranormal second map gallery (Hotel)