#fractured mind

[time-and-disregard]

Asuka, forever and always.

[gebo4482]

Fractured Mind - Demo

Gamejolt / Itch.io

[toastthewolfie]

ah yes

idk why but when i was playing the demo, this made me laugh really hard simply bc i didnt expect it

anyways PLAY FRACTURED MIND IF YOU WANT, ITS VERY COOL (though the demo did crash for me after a hour or so of playing so that was kinda sad but what I experienced was super cool!)

(Kinda unrelated bur THE ATTENTION TO DETAIL IN THIS GAME IS JUST… WOWOWOWOSKDMWJ I LOVE IT)

[arcane-strangeness]

alright, why the FUCK is no one talking about the new demo for the game Fractured Mind by ACID

You start in the car of a train, deep beneath the earth in some sort of metro, you assume. You walk forwards, find a gun abandoned on a seat, and pick it up. There's something wrong here, wrong, as you walk through the doors opposite from you and find yourself in the room you just left. You take a minute to examine your surroundings, reading posters and checking flyers, and as you walk through the next door things have Changed in your surroundings. its minor at first, posters are different, things are a little dirtier, and then a few cars later suddenly there's blood on the walls, splattered across the ceiling. A few more and everything reverts back to "normal", and the speaker on the wall next to you crackles to life, detailing the gruesome murder committed by a seemingly ordinary man in a news report type fashion. You trek forwards, taking in all the little details, and suddenly, you're not alone anymore

People, unmoving, with their faces pixelated out like they're on security camera footage populate the next car. you expect them to move, and jump out at you, as gorror games tend to do, but they never move, so you press cautiously onward. the blood returns, this time lining up behind these "people" and the speaker once again begins to make noise, calling you over and over again.

you are a goddamn murderer. you are a goddamn murderer. you are a goddamn murderer. you are a goddamn murderer.

with the gun in your hand, maybe you are a murderer.

it loops, tone and cadence slightly different every time. still you press onward, even as the seats begin to clip in and out of reality, poles twisted over like some hulking creature threw a tantrum. even as the "people" suddenly turn to look at you, pixelated masks gone and wide smiles on their faces, even as the floor becomes a writhing mass of blood and guts, even as bloodied figures begin to haunt you, even as the lights go out.

this truly is a nightmare

as far as gameplay goes go there is a reason this game is a demo right now, it has some major polishing that needs to be done in terms of bugs. but graphics animation and sound design are PERFECT. it really does feel like a nightmare in the way that everything seems to twist around you, all dimensions just slightly off. and its scary, the few jumpscares there are, really got me in just how overwhelming they are. you see, the game is quiet, quiet in humming lights and low ambiance. it feels like you're on a train, late at night, with no one else around. so when something vaguely flesh colored and humanoid jumps at you and screams for far longer than it should, after 15 minutes of near silence, its horrible. I love it. and the implied story is fantastic, but I wont spoil more than I already have here. you really have to put the puzzle pieces together. and I think what really makes this game a good game is just how uncomfortable it makes you. in every car you need to check every little detail in order to gather clues, and in cars where there are incredibly uncanny "people" staring at you, or spasming uncontrollably, that is the last thing you want to be doing. but it makes you get up close and personal, if you miss something you simply walk through the next doors to find you right back where you were. it loops. all in all I cannot wait for the full release to come out this seems very, VERY promising.

[swtor--screenshots]

[forlornegames]

Dev Summary - Fractured Mind

The down side to participating in a game jam is finding time to keep track of everything you've done and learned. But I'm going to try my best to recount everything and record it here.

First, if you want to give it a try Fractured Mind is available to play on itch.io for free. CLICK HERE

Player Controller - Mechanics

On this project I was responsible for gameplay programming for the most part. I started with what I was most familiar with, player controllers. I kept it really simple, using a Character Controller. Initially the design was to use 3D assets but restrict movement along the z-axis. 

I was making changes to the Character Controller for most of the life of the project, adding new mechanics and testing things out. I started with pushing blocks. I decided on using a timed trigger to move them, if you’re pushing against the block for X seconds, it’ll move a short distance in that direction. It didn’t work out very well to start but with some persistence I was able to get it where I wanted it.

Next thing on the list was climbing ledges. Unfortunately I didn’t have a proper animation for this, so it looks more like levitation but it still worked. Unfortunately we needed to cut it out of the game because of the missing animation but I still had fun figuring this one out. Biggest take-away from this was that you can’t lerp a players movement while the character controller is enabled. I created prefabs for left and right ledge climbs, it was made of up a single trigger collider and a couple of empty gameobjects I used to lerp the player to. 

Something else that I worked on that also got cut was ladder climbing. I got it working on a basic level but again had to cut it due to lack of animation. I wish we had more animation completed I really would have liked to work on transitioning states for climbing up and down ladders, and getting on/off from the top and bottom. Maybe next time :) This time though, I just used trigger colliders at the top and bottom of the ladder, press E to attach to the ladder, and while you’re on the ladder the player input changed from UP changing Z position to changing Y position. 

Enemy AI - NavMesh/PathFinding

This was my first time trying out Unity’s navmesh pathfinding system and it was a blast! I had a ton of fun working on the enemies in this game. The first thing I did after figuring out the waypoint system was get them to “see” the player.

I used a custom collider created from a mesh I tossed together in blender. It was a cone shape to mimic range of sight. These guys have almost no peripheral vision lol. So once the enemy detected the player in it’s vision I had it shoot a ray to see if there were any obstacles in the way. This way you weren’t being detected through walls. I also implemented a distraction mechanic, where you could whistle and if you were within range the enemy would come looking for you, and if it didn’t see you it would do a quick sweep of the immediate area and then head back to it’s pathing route. I used Random.InsideUnitCircle to acheive that and it worked like a charm. I also got to play around with particle effects and ended up creating the fire/cloud effect you see on the enemies using my own textures. 

All-in-all I learned so much during this project. Working with a team is VERY different from working solo on projects but it also allows for some awesome ideas you never would have had on your own. I learned how to better organize my project code to optimize for easier scaling, which I am already starting to implement on my next project! :) 

Anyway, that’s it from me. If this was a little rambly I apologize, I’m writing this at the wee hours of the morning after finishing the night shift at work. xD Thanks for reading! 

[swtor--screenshots]

[swtor--screenshots]