Haunting Grounds v1.1

👻 Overview

The game was created following the theme YOU ARE THE WEAPON! With this we created Haunting Grounds, an action game with stealth elements where the player, as a ghost, attempts to clear out their former home by scaring the current residents. The game takes place in a single large castle level, where the player can scare residents by turning off lights, throwing objects, and appearing before them. Be wary of the guards however, who will try to banish the player with their flashlights. Also watch the clock, as once it strikes 6:00a.m. the morning light will rid you of the castle. Once all residents have lost their sanity the player has reclaimed their home and has won the game.

⚙️ Game Mechanics

• Invisibility - as a ghost you can traverse through walls and pop out as an advantage to escape encounters and look for scare opportunities
• Interacting - The player can interact with objects in the environment, creating scares for NPCs within the area. Interacting with the environment can only be done while the player is invisible. Objects include plates, wine bottles, bookshelves, pots, knives, candles and torches
• Guards/Flashlights - Guards around the castle are out to find the player and will target the player if they get too close, although they cannot see the ghost while the player is invisible. The guard's flashlights damage the player in range with repeated hits to their health
• Residents - Residents seek their nearest friend when frightened, or the nearest guard if they are being chased by the player. If they find they have been in darkness for too long they will seek the closest light source and turn it back on if it is not already
• Sanity - Each NPC has a visible sanity bar displayed above their character model. Different levels of sanity can cause different behaviours. For instance, guards will lose their ability to hunt with their flashlight if they are caught below 20% sanity. Regular residents have more subtle changes such as seeking their nearest friend when under 50% sanity, as this helps to increase their sanity more quickly. Some of these changes can be quite obvious when paired with an animation or a character model change
• Lighting - The candles and torches around the castle provide light for the residents. When NPCs are unbothered within the light, their sanity steadily increases, when in the darkness, their sanity steadily decreases. Normal residents are smart and able to tell if they have been in the dark for too long, in which they will actively seek the nearest light source and turn it on
• Timing - The clock found in the top left on the UI slowly ticks towards the morning. At each hour there will be a bell ring, here residents seek to roam to different rooms. If the clock reaches 6:00am before the player has claimed victory, the player will lose the game

🕹️ Controls

• WASD/Arrow Keys - movement
• Q - Invisibility
• E - Interact
• M - Instructions Menu

💻 Development Tools

Genre

♟️ Single Player 👾 Arcade ⚔️ Action 🥷 Stealth