Sewer Escape

Sewer Escape is the spooky first-person escape game with the goal of finding the key to escape the sewers. Created for my dissertation, Sewer Escape is my first first-person project. The aim of the dissertation was to identify key features which would make any game more fun to play. By designing Sewer Escape to feature a timer and leaderboard system, this added great replayability to the project and allowed me to introduce new visual feedback features each run until the game was deemed fun to play.

Implemented Features:

Below you'll find a list of implemented features with a short description on how they worked in this game compared to Crazy Tractor and Worried Walter.

1. Post Processing - Adding visual flare to the project to help provide additional depth. I used a variety of features built into the Post-Processsing Stack V2 in the Unity Game Engine to add additional shadows and to enhance the lighting. In addition to this, the bloom effect helped outline key areas in which the players could interact with the puzzles.

2. Smooth Lerping - Adding a smoothing technique to the camera controller and allowed for additional customization in the settings menu. This feature fixed a lot of input issues that could arrise from poor bluetooth mouse usage.

3. Screen Shake - Adding screen shake once a puzzle has been completed and once you collect the key.

4. Particle Effects - Adding fire to the torches and volumetric fog. If done another way, could be used to add walking dust and responsive particles to successful interactions.

5. Object Flashing - Adding some flashing effects to the screen once the key has been collected. Specifically designed to add tension to the game. If done another way, It could be used to highlight available boxes that can be interacted with.

6. Squash and Stretch - Adding some visual feedback once the level was succesful (Animating the boxes)

7. Reactive Animaitons - Animating the barred doors and floating boxes

Gameplay:

Sewer Escape offers basic first person controls: Movement relative to where the camera is facing + Jump physics. In addition to this, I implemented an interact mechanic wherr you can pick up objects and items. This was done using a custom "Reference Free" Interaction system which detects which objects can be interacted with on thr fly and then calls the interact method attached to that object. This allowed for great customisation when designing interacitons. The aim of the game is to find the key and escape the sewers in the fastest time possible.

Graphics:

The game was designed using Crocotile3D, a tilemap based 3D modelling software which uses basic 2D tilemaps to create intricate 3D models. Combined with Aseprite, I was able to develop all assets for the game with great efficiency. The simplicity of the graphics combined with Post Processing makes for a really tense feeling atmosphere.

Additional Details:

• Creation Date: Apr 6, 2023

• Project Type: Dissertation Project

• Development Tools: Unity Game Engine, Visual Studio with C#, Crocotile3D, Aseprite