Dormant

Dormant is a game that I handed in as my final high school project in an unfinished state. I'm currently working on it.

It's based on notes and sketches I've created throughout quarantine. The game's story is about the mental torture of an individual who lived in a hostile and isolated environment. Little issues with no way to vent build up until the victim lashes out.

The gameplay consists of puzzle solving, avoiding danger, exploring and figuring out what exactly went wrong. The game's enviroment keeps repeating (such as in P. T., for example), each time changing shape drastically to reflect the victim's state of mind. The further the player gets in-game, the deeper the player gets to explore the victim's mind and bottled-up anger. They're trying to stop the player from touring their mind as best they can, but it's not hard to go further still.

Since I knew the game wouldn't be finished in such a short time to hand it in, I focused a lot on the graphics. The game ended up with the visual style of video games released around the year 2000, with Half-Life being one of my biggest inspirations while making textures. The low-res textures and rough filters give off an early digital camera video recording visual style, which I fully embraced. I took special care to capture all the textures in bleak weather, including the inside ones, which helps to convey the desolate atmosphere.

I plan to work on this game slowly but surely; I don't want to rush anything this close to me, so I can't give a release date. I plan to release the game in little bits as I go. Eventually, I want to release the game on Steam for free alongside paid extra content, detailing the development and giving more lore.

The attatched demo is the latest version there is, although I'm considering moving from Unity to Godot and reworking the first few levels. I don't plan for the visuals or the gameplay to change much. Hopefully not at all. Enjoy! :)