My new project: Upon The Horizon

So, In my first blog I spoke about my thought process on finalizing a new game idea after the release of Aliens: Redacted and now this blog is going to dive deep into more details on the project itself and the progress I've already made. So lets get into it!

The story so far...

As you can probably guess from the title of this blog post my new project will be called 'Upon The Horizon'. It's a 2.5D first person shooter taking inspiration from a number of genres like psychological and cosmic horror. I aim to blur the lines between what's reality and what's not as you fight off increasingly illogical and impossible enemies while you descend further into madness...Well, that's the idea anyway. I am drawing a lot of inspirations from other videogame works such as the phenomenal Control (which I spoke about in my first blog post) and from movies such as Solaris, Videodrome and Annihilation. It also goes without saying that it will be HEAVILY influenced from the works of H.P. Lovecraft and the broader cosmic horror genre.

The first logo design and art for the game a long with a game info sheet outlining the key aspects of the game.

The C.S. Esteban, a commercial space station that housed around 3000 workers and saw more than 5000 visitors a day, has gone dark. No communications have come out of the station for over a week and no ships in the space ports has tried to detach. It's as if everyone has just...vanished.

You play as a mercenary, ordered by the company to investigate the strange silence coming from the station. As the closest asset in the sector you are ordered to dock with the Esteban, re-establish coms at the station and communicate with the company so that re-enforcements can be sent, but everything on the Esteban might not be what it seems...

This is just the basic outline of the story so far, a lot might change between now and the time I get further into development.

Designing impossible enemies...

With the main themes of the game touching on cosmic horror and reality bending I set out wanting to make the enemy types seem abstract and strange. Things that incorporate the cosmic horror aspect while also being odd in form and function. I want the player to approach an enemy and have no idea how to deal with them. This is going to be a key draw of the game is having really interesting enemies that are fun and challenging to fight.

Three enemy types have been designed so far, one melee, one projectile and an 'continuous spawner' enemy who spawns infinite enemies until destroyed.

The 'Void Grunt' acts as the low tier melee unit. They will be relatively easy to dispatch but will have a high damage output. The Void Grunts unique in the fact that, if under sustained fire it will 'glitch' to another location (mostly behind the player) in an attempt to move closer to attack the player.

The various animation states of the 'Void Grunt'.

The 'Void Sphere' is the primary projectile enemy type. Once it has spotted the player it will relentlessly track you down. Once close enough it will continually fire energy waves that constantly drain your health until destroyed.

The various animation states of the 'Void Sphere'.

The 'Spawn Portal' is exactly what you expect it to be. Once it has spotted the player it will continuously spawn enemies in its area until destroyed.

The 'idle' and 'spawn' animations states of the 'Spawn Portal'.

I have a whole bunch of strange and abstract enemy types planned for the future which will be revealed (a long with more story elements) in a later blog post.

Weapons for a Star man...

As this is first and foremost, a first-person shooter, the weapons are going to be an essential part of the gameplay. They have to not only look cool and authentic but also feel like they pack a punch by providing both smooth animations and great sound design.

I have currently finalised two weapon designs so far. I'm hoping to have a total of 15 weapons implemented into the game which will showcase a variety of different gameplay opportunities on how to approach enemy encounters and give another dimension to the gunplay. Here are the in-universe descriptions below:

The Yarish SA-77 Pulse Pistol is the most widely used side-arm across the galaxy. Its sturdy design and stellar operational track record make it the number one option for many military and private contractors across space. It uses a 15 chamber clip of the patented pulse energy casing that provides nearly 100% more power than a standard ballistic round with only half of the recoil.

the 'firing' and 'reload' animations for the Pistol.

The Tenko MA-15 SMG is a high-powered ballistic sub-machine gun with a 30 round magazine. It is a common weapon of choice with most mercenaries due to its light-weight polymer frame and versatility at both mid-range and long-range encounters. Although it is thought of as a relatively "old" weapon compared to modern contemporaries it is still found widely in use across the galaxy.

the 'firing' and 'reload' animations for the SMG.

So that's just a brief look at what I've been working on so far. There's still a long journey ahead for myself and a lot of other assets to work on before I can even consider putting something playable together but I just wanted to share an update with you guys. Expect more blogs on this project shortly as I start to ramp up development.

thank you for reading :)