Summary
House of Tarots was a school project created with Unreal Engine to practice level design and prototyping. First, I decided to look for inspiration from other games. Then I created a draft of my layout and made the blocking. Finally, I scripted an enemy AI and events in the level.
Inspirations
I love horror games and how complex they can be, so I had the idea of making a small house with a creature that would have a certain behavior depending what tarot cards the player would have. To keep the project simple, I picked three cards to decide how my creature would act in the house.
For the cards, I picked the Ace of Wands, Knight of Swords and The Star and with the research I’ve made, I’ve decided to make an aggressive enemy that would attack on sign and set traps all over the house.
Level Design
The layout was inspired by Visage, Resident Evil 7 : Biohazard and Phasmophobia. When I completed my 2D layout and started my blocking in Unreal Engine, I realized that my rooms were made much too small to let the player navigate and run from the enemy. By taking this into consideration, I made the hallways much wider and the rooms larger.
The enemy
Finally, it was time to make the AI. I attempted to create a level that had tension between the player and the creature. So any blind spot the player could have, the enemy can spawn. Since he is aggressive, the moment the player enters it’s sight with the sphere trace, he attacks. Randomly, traps will spawn around the house and if the player comes into contact, the creature will come right for them and kill them.
