Signal
Roles : Head Writer, Level Designer/Builder
TECHNICAL SHEET
INFORMATIONS
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Player :
Signal
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Survival Horror
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PC
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Unreal Engine 4
Offline
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Solo
Signal is a the demo of an horrific 3D first-person survival game set in a dystopic USSR.
With the help of a power multi purpose radio, the player must escape the terrible D'yavol to reach an injured ally guiding him from a secured place.
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This game was made during an entire school year as my final project for graduation, we were 6 people working on it full time.
NARRATIVE
During the cold war, the USSR government decided to create a new weapon, one that could occupy a land contaminated by a nuclear blast : a super soldier.
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They chose a remote yet prosperous enough city to conduct their tests, the industrial city of Prashakov. With the help of the defence ministry, the government built a brand new nuclear power plant on the outskirts of town, its true purpose was to hide the laboratory under it, so no satellite imagery would blow the whistle.
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A few years later, in 1989, the test began testing, but the results weren't the ones expected, pushing the scientists into a darker corners of science, that's when they succeeded, by heavily altering human DNA, they created a carbon enriched being.
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But what was supposed to be a biological success turned out to be a massive failure. The modified soldier lost control and annihilated the lab , only following his destructive instinct. Soon enough, he broke out of the facility and ran toward the city, releasing a thick carbon cloud on his way, the more he killed, the thicker the cloud got.
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Faced with the threat, the military tried to strike back, but nothing harmed the creature, it was unkillable. After a full day of fight, they noticed that the creature had multiplied, it didn't take them long to realise that the dark fog was slowly transforming everyone who inhaled it into a monster.
By the end of the 2nd day, the government decided to abandon the city and completely isolate it, they saw that the monsters could only walk in their own fog, so, to stop it from destroying the world, they build a concrete wall all around the city.
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If the monster creates fog by killing people, then just build a tall enough wall and wait for the last survivors to die, at some point, they won't be able to make more fog. And so they did, leaving the last survivors behind, they trapped the city in a concrete circle and erased it from history.
NARRATIVE DEVELOPMENT
Characters
IVAN LASKIN
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Role : Main Character
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Game Goal : Reach the radio tower
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Level Goal : Escape the creature
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Personality : A relatively calm man, very affected by fear and strong emotions, would do everything to save his son.
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Gender : Male
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Age : 32
NIKOLAÏ
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Role : Mentor / Traitor
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Game Goal : Befriend then betray the player.
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Level Goal : Keep company to the player while guiding him.
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Personality : Usually friendly and childish, his behaviour slowly transform into a mean and unfriendly fellow.
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Gender : Male
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Age : 29
D'YAVOL
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Role : Antagonist
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Game Goal : Kill the player.
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Level Goal : Push the player forward.
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Personality : A ruthless hunter without emotions, it only lives to kill.
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Gender : Neutral
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Age : 10
Basic Character Sheet (Example)
Send to the gulag when he was 25, he tries his best to survive with his son.
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He was given the opportunity to go to Prashakov to trace a radio signal, if he succeeds, him and he son will be free, if he fails, his son will go in his stead.
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MOTIVATION :
Ivan LASKIN
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Male
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32
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1m70 (5ft5)
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57kg (125lbs)
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Slim
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Black hair, brown eyes, oblong jaw
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Damaged military clothes
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A sympathetic and easy-going guy. A loving and doting father always trying to make life easier for his son in the gulag.
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Determined to accomplish his mission, if he fails, his son will have to go in his stead.
Key Words
DARK
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Very dark environment forcing the player to heavily rely on his flashlight and his hearing.
OPPRESSIVE
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1. Extremely wide exterior spaces with no escape points and tall buildings.
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2. Claustrophobic rooms and corridors.
OVERGROWN
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Omnipresence of the vegetation that thrived during the 10 years of abandonment of Prashakov.
Chronological Key Points
Enter Building 1
Talk with Nikolaï
Escape to Subway
Pick up Korobka
Discover the D'Yavol
*Not to scale with playtime
10 years after it was abandoned, Ivan is sent to the city to locate a mysterious radio signal that appeared out of nowhere. If he finds the signal, he and his son will be free, however, must he fail, his son will have to find the signal in his stead.
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Not sure what to do, he discovers a strange device in an abandoned store, a Korobka, a radio receptor capable of detecting ambient sound and electricity. Talking through the mysterious box, is Nikolaï, a friend he met in the gulag, Nikolaï was sent here before Ivan to find the signal, but he was attacked and failed to message the army he was still alive, prompting them to send Ivan after him.
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Nikolaï, still hidden somewhere in town, asks Ivan to join him at the power plant, where the signal is coming from
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- The story bellow isn't present in the demo -
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After escaping his first D'Yavol in the subway, Ivan realises that there are hundreds of them all around the city, kept inside by the wall. He tries his best and slowly crosses the city. As he progresses, Nikolaï's attitude changes, from a goofy ally to an obnoxious and choleric decision-maker.
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By exploring the abandoned buildings, Ivan learns about the laboratory and the experiments, realising that the government lied to the whole world to protect their dirty secret. Still unsure of what he'll find at the end of his journey, he reaches the old yet still functioning power plant that Nikolaï has been running this whole time.
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Once he meets him, Ivan notices the black spots on Nikolaï's body, confirming his suspicions about him turning into a monster. Nikolaï, still struggling against his new demons, tells Ivan the truth, this whole signal thing was a lie invented by the army, the wall is deteriorating and they needed someone to distract the D'Yavol while they repaired it, they've been sending one prisoner every 10 hours as a decoy.
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Ivan understand that he was never meant to come back alive and that his son will suffer the same fate. Nikolaï reassures him, some people are immune to the fog, that's why the monsters killed so many people instead of just waiting for the fog to take care of it. And seeing how Ivan's body is still clean, he must be one of them, if he can escape from the city, he might be able to find his son.
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Slowly loosing his reason, Nikolaï suggests they take revenge and destroy the wall, a pipe runs under the wall, with enough steam, they can blow it up. Ivan refuses, since that might destroy the whole world, angered by the decision, Nikolaï loses it and fully transforms, chasing Ivan into the lab to kill him.
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While running after Ivan, Nikolaï damages the structures and different valves, pushing the reactor to its limits and opening the closed pipe. Cornered in the lab's storage room, Ivan is about to be killed when Nikolaï's arm pierces through a tank of liquid nitrogen, instantly freezing the creature's carbon atoms back to a solid form before the tanks falls onto it, shattering Nikolaï into thousands of carbon pieces.
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Alive, Ivan doesn't have time to breath, the alarm goes off, steam is building up into the pipe and is about to blow up, unable to stop it, Ivan has no other choice but to hide, he leaves to building just in time to see the underground pipe exploding and the wall crumbling as the fog spreads out of the city.
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END
LEVEL DESIGN
The text below talks about the very early level design, it has since changed and does not looks like that in the game but still fully explains our way of thinking.
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Signal was intended as a linear game with only the small puzzles necessitating the player to go back and forth.
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Each building was designed to explain a feature. Building 1 is for the basic mechanics and the hiding spots. The subway station introduces the mechanic of sound and the Building 2 shows you how to use electrical cables to find your way.
