Hello everyone,
I’m the co-developer of “The Worry of Newport”, a singleplayer horror mystery game with an emphasis on immersion and storytelling. It is a remake of a 2011 Crysis mod of the same name (ModDB) set in the fictional colony of Newport, somewhere in the north Atlantic.
Gameplay in the mod was comparable with a walking simulator, though this time we are going for a more involved approach involving interactive dialogue, scripted sequences, puzzles, and more environment interaction. The emphasis remains, however, on building atmosphere and evoking the feeling of experiencing a Lovecraftian story first-hand.
You can see some early screenshots of our first environment here. Most of the core features are already implemented, such as movement, interaction, and basic level scripting.
Our goal is to produce a demo of the first chapter (about 20 minutes) featuring all of the basic game systems and demonstrating the atmosphere and narrative style. Because we are basing this on the original mod we already have the full scope in mind, and are considering crowdfunding as a small development push - but will decide this closer to completing the demo.
Project Details
- We are using Unreal Engine 4, FMOD, git for source control, trello for management, discord for comms.
- Both principal characters are voice acted (with actors already in place), featuring a back-and-forth dialogue system inspired by Firewatch
- The full game will be 7 chapters, roughly 25 minutes each.
Who We’re Looking For
Currently the team consists of myself (Dave Watts - programming via Blueprints, artwork) and Glenn Winkelmann (writing and narrative design, design lead). However, we realise there is a missing link between initial level concept and art implementation, which is why we are looking to work with an experienced level designer.
This is a collaborative effort, and we see the level designer’s role as taking the level beats laid out in the original mod (and our reworked synopsis) and translating them into a functional blockout, with a mind for how the player’s path and interactions help build the narrative.
Note that although this is based on earlier work, this is not a level-by-level remake. This is an entirely different telling of the same story, though there are obviously ideas we can reuse or reimagine as appropriate.
Interested?
If the project sounds like something you’d like to work on and/or you want more details, shoot me a message on Discord: DaveFace#6850