Preternatural

Preternatural is a third person explorative horror game where players interact with objects to explore an abandoned mansion to find out what happened.

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Project Overview

2018 (6 months) ・ Team Size: 8 ・ Unity3D 2018 ・ Unity C#

Preternatural follows a young boy named Timmy and his journey to seek answers. Waking up alone, on a rainy, thunderous night, Timmy realises that his house his empty. As he explores his home, he slowly finds out the events that led to this.

As a horror exploratory game, the core gameplay revolves around exploration - walking around, interacting with objects.

(Finalist) Best 3D Visuals

Roles

Audio Programmer
Programmer
Audio Designer
Voice Actress

Audio Programmer

Unity3D 2018 ・ Microsoft Visual Studios ・ Unity C#

I took over the role of being the sole audio programmer upon joining the group. At the end of the project, I managed to:

Extend Unity's audio engine
Rewrite the existing version of extended audio engine as it was complicated and not easy to use
Create an audio event system that was easy to use
Integrate the existing custom trigger system with audio events

I also integrated the audio engine with Unity's audio mixer functionality. Some of the features I added to the audio engine were:

Fade out/in audio
Delay audio for an amount of time
Left/Right audio panning via Unity's built in system
Simple distance based volume attenuation
Play audio during certain animation states

My goal was to create an engine that could be easily extended and also enhanced the feel of the game via functions like panning sound and attenuation.

Ending room, before making the final choice.

Programmer

Unity3D 2018 ・ Microsoft Visual Studios ・ Unity C# ・ Unity Timeline

Besides audio, I also had other tasks as a normal programmer. One of them was programming atmospheric events such as lighting flickering or Timmy reacting to certain stimuli.

Lighting in a horror game is important. Proper lighting will truly enhance the atmosphere and mood. As a programmer, some of my responsibilities were:

Optimize the lighting in the game
Troubleshoot any issues that cause lag
Create light events and trigger event system for designers
Swap images of paintings after event happens

Lighting, in any game, is an expensive task that can cause lag to any game. Part of my job was to find ways to optimize the real-time lighting to reduce the lag, such as light culling and baking.

I also created a system for controlling lighting events such as lights changing colours or modifying the intensity of light via trigger events. This allowed the designers to create and enhance the atmosphere in the game.

When Timmy hears thunder or other 'scary' sounds, he will stop and shake as a way to convey to the player that he is scared. When unexpected things like the door slamming shut happen, Timmy displays shock by looking around. This was programmed in to make him feel more alive.

Audio Designer

Unity3D 2018 ・ Unity Timeline ・ Unity Audio Mixers ・ Audacity

As an audio designer for the game, I worked closely with the producer and audio composer to design audio for the game. Some of my responsibilities included:

Finding usable audio from an audio library
Record sound effects
Editing / Mixing the audio for use in the game
Adjusting the volumes of sound effects
Adding audio to the game
Creating scripts to play randomized audio on animation events

I mainly used Audacity to edit and mix the audio for the game, and used Unity's audio mixer system to further balance the volume and channels in the game.

I also worked closely with the audio composer by giving feedback. I also had to add the music and sound clips given by the composer into the cutscenes and game itself, and adjust when to end each clip for maximum impact accordingly.

The goal was to deliver an audio soundscape that fit the environment.

Voice Actress

In the game, Timmy is a silent protagonist. Initially he had no voice at all and all reactions were done purely through animation, which made him less believable and hard for the player to relate to Timmy. As voice actress for Timmy, I was to inject some life to him via small sounds such as: