Project Title: Kothar of Wurunwi [Koe - Thar / Wurr - Run - Wee]
Description: You play as William Kothar, a grieving father who lost his son a couple of years ago in a hunting accident. After performing a ritual to bring his son back from the dead, William finds himself stuck in a nightmarish version of the places he once knew so well. Along the way, he finds few weapons and little ammo, all to combat demonic animals, remnants from his past, and whatever else we come up with. Utilizing his skills as a hunter, he sneaks and stalks his way through the nightmarish landscapes. As everything around him is twisted beyond recognition, will he be able to save his son, or will he lose him all over again…and most importantly… What’s truly going on?
Includes:
A single player, story driven narrative
A melancholic, yet unnerving atmosphere
Third person perspective
In-engine cutscenes
Classic survival horror mechanics, such as limited inventory space, slight free roam/back tracking, puzzles, and more
This is our first time making a video game. Talent Required: Unreal Engine 5 Developer
Experience working with UE5
We are still learning UE5, so any assistance is welcome (whether it be asset creation, blueprints, animations, or anything else)
In terms of payment, there will be a Patreon, GoFundMe, etc, for the project in order to help raise money to pay developers (aka you). We can’t guarantee payment, as it just depends on how well public support goes.
Anybody else (including but not limited) voice actors, musicians, concept artists, etc, are more than welcome to reach out as well. Any and all help is appreciated for this passion project.
Contact: Either message “szyrogames” on Discord or drop your Discord handle below.
The first area is mostly fleshed out for the script and in engine (I’m currently working on redesigning it in the engine), we have basic movement such as running, jumping and sprinting. I had health, stamina and pickup system with inventory, but a lot of bugs arose from it so I scrapped it and planned on starting from scratch on it again after I get more of the map built. All in all, less than I want but since I’m the only one working on it and I’m learning from scratch progress has been slow.
Are you developing in Blueprints or C++, both? (I do Blueprints). Would you be opposed to incorporating Marketplace Game Templates, Game Systems, and other Assets?
What aesthetic art style are you going for?
I was working on a *Unconventional Multiplayer* Psychological Survival Horror Game with friends called The Music Box...
With a similar premise of “Lost Children”. A Detective, Lost Daughter and other children, and a battle against a evil: a powerful Interdimensional Witch that can shapeshift and alter reality (think a female Pennywise that takes various forms, but favorites tend to be a puppets and dolls, and monstrous golem forms constructed from the environmental realities. I developed this GOLEMFAB for this purpose.
From my experience, the most complex and challenging aspects of a narrative driven game is firstly the story creation and its translation into the game world. Secondly, world building and in-game cut scenes. The sheer amount work involved with achieving this is massively under appreciated.
Many Devs start with linear story written like a novel and then jump into level design...
dropping a Avatar in that can walk around. But in my opinion, a linear story is not the ideal format to use in a game, and the game mechanics, supportive subsystems & tools should have emphasis placed on them firstly.
@TechLord These are some great questions and I apologize for not getting back to you sooner. I do plan on doing it in blueprints as that’s the easiest way I know how to do it. I am not opposed to using assets from the game store as long as those creators are properly credited for those assets. As far as art wise I don’t need high amounts of detail, low resolution is fine as long as it’s not blocky or blurry. Having a game dev that can do the cutscenes and help me narratively translate the story and message of the game from paper to gameplay would be crucial to this project’s success. I do have a dev that will be working solely on game mechanics while I work on map building to set the scene.
The implementation of story will be in the game play mechanics...
What is your current story and format? What is your current methodology of translation into dialogue, cut scenes, game play? This is an aspect of game dev that typically 5 to 10 professional game developers are dedicated too. Are you planning to just use sequencer for cutscenes? Are there quick time events?
A definitive artistic style and vision should pre-exist...
Sure we can swap skins for 3D entities / objects at anytime, but we really need an upfront art-direction, as it defines the overall aesthetic for game and planning for resources needed to pull it off.
Low Resolution? Are you talking Voxels/3D Pixelation? Decimated Polygons / PS1 style 3D models & Textures? Toon-shaders needed? You have a vision in your mind’s eye. An inspiration. Share it. The entire game could be ASCII text for all i know. LOL.
I'm certain my approach would be radically different...
I’m not interested in recreating the wheel especially for common game mechanisms. I would leverage multiplayer runtime in-game editing systems, generative AI: multi-branching narrative in screenplay format, Procedural Generation, Full Featured Game Template, Metahumans, and a plethora of Photorealistic Assets from the Marketplace.
@TechLord I haven’t really looked into how to do the dialogue and cut scenes yet as the development is extremely early, but we do plan to have voice actors for the lines. I’m still pretty new to the engine myself so there is a lot I have left to learn. We do have an art style in mind as we are taking inspiration from many other horror games including Silent Hill and Resident Evil. This is a singleplayer game so I’m not sure how multiplayer runtime will fit in that aspect and I don’t plan on using any generated AI products in the final build (it’s fine for temporary placeholders). I’m not trying to over complicate what’s supposed to be a simple game so metahumans and photorealistic assets are a bit too much for the vision of this project. If you are interested in joining, I’d be happy to share full details about the plan.
We do have an art style in mind as we are taking inspiration from many other horror games including Silent Hill and Resident Evil.
Till now, you did NOT mention the art style and inspiration. LOL. What versions of these SH and RE games are you inspired by? These franchises have been around for a long time thus you have to specify what you consider to be ‘classic’. I recommend mentioning these games in the top post.
The shear amount of work required is catastrophically underestimated and it is complicated.
I’ll emphasize that translation into dialogue, cut scenes, game play is an aspect of game dev that typically 5 to 10 professional game developers are dedicated too. I would encourage you to NOT assume anything and rule out any tools, resources, methodologies that would actually speed up development.
What is complicated | not complicated is actually is dependent on one’s knowledge and experience. From my experience, I wouldn’t be starting from scratch. I’d leverage existing “known-good” resources, methodologies, and techniques.
I’m still pretty new to the engine myself so there is a lot I have left to learn.
I concur. I started working with UE 11 years ago (UDK prior) and I’m still learning. Learning UE is an never ending endeavor with 100s of professional developers constantly cranking out new features and new versions.
Why not Metahumans?
Do you have existing Character Model for the primary character William Kothar? What about the Demons? If FALSE, then why not Metahumans which are fully customizable character model directly supported by Epic? Have you use it before? Are you familiar with LOD settings and mesh decimation? One can make Metahumans look anyway they want them too.
You have to ask yourself this very important question...
Do you want spend time learning to be a programmer, modeler, etc, or do you want spend time building games by any means necessary. There is a huge difference.
I’m only interested in building games by any means necessary. I’ll use existing assets, generative ai, or whatever else helps me achieve this goal. With a lil over 11 years working in various game dev and team projects, I’ve learned my lessons. But, you need to learn yours and I would be a hindrance to that process.
I sincerely wish you great success on this project. If you are interested in general game dev chat lets discord.