Friday, December 31, 2010

The Anthology of Horror


This post acts as an introduction to my latest side project in the realm of horror modding titled the Anthology of Horror.
I always considered myself a fan of "creepypasta", essentially horror flashfiction with the goal of surprising or creeping out the reader only at the end. And despite my ability to write horror quite easily when in the right mindset, I could never deliver on this form of writing. This is why Anthology of Horror was made. In order to take what makes those stories so good, and put it into gaming form, a realm that I can control and manipulate more successfully.
Each map in the Anthology of Horror will have a distinct, but small, setting. The idea is to write a micro story, apply it to Crysis gameplay, and then wrap up the project as soon as possible (usually 3-5 days per map). This is quite an ambitious endeavor besides for the really small profile of all the maps, so basically once reviews are in for all three of these maps, it will decide whether I even attempt to do it again or not.

Map overview

Each map is designed totest a particular method of game play or level design as it's main crux, essentially letting me teach myself on how to do things successfully. Each map will also have an element to be present in the next Worry of Newport chapter, which will make its debut on these maps as a sort of live trial.
Shelter will be the first map released. It has a beta version of Newport's new time of day and weather effects, is the first debut of the new book reading system through flowgraph, and also debuts the flashlight prefab. All these elements have been tied into a narrative and creepypasta story, and they all seem to work wonderfully.
Voyage is going to be a very cool map. The player starts underwater, searching through ruins and wimming around. Eventually it hits the fan and the truth behind the ruins and ancient book discovered are revealed. Nothing is being trial ran here, actually, which is nice. Voyage will be a no holds barred fresh experience and creepy story.
Wendigo�is going to be the classic tale retold through trackview scenes and survival. As the player slowly grows more and more sickly and frozen, the voice of the wendigo will grow closer and louder, adding to the tension until a fiery finish. Anyone familiar with the tale will know how it will end.�Wendigo is going to feature an absolutely massive view distance and also extremely detailed distant terrain, so I can practice designing snow environments better for Worry of Newport. This will be the least creepy of all three maps, but will have a very polished presentation if I can nail the audio aspect.

I expect all three to be released and if need be, fully patched, by February 1st at the absolute latest.

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