On the design side:
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Creating an eerie mood that supported a deeper narrative.
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Ensuring mechanics reinforced the emotional tone.
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Heirloom
Puzzle, Horror, Side Scroller, Athmosperic
Overview
Heirloom is an atmospheric puzzle-horror side scroller exploring themes connected to real-life social issues.
The project focused on creating an eerie environment and aligning mechanics with narrative tone.
Challenge
The main challenge was combining atmosphere and storytelling with functional gameplay systems.
On the technical side:
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Developing AI that patrols and actively chases the player when detected..
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Designing a smart camera system that avoids visual obstruction.
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Delivering all of this within limited time and team experience.
Approach
To address these challenges, I focused on system clarity and responsiveness:
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Designed and implemented enemy AI with roaming and chase behaviour.
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Built player interaction logic for puzzle mechanics.
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Implemented environmental effects (smoke, fuse breaking) to reinforce tension.
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Developed a dynamic camera system that detects obstruction and adjusts to maintain player visibility.
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Structured puzzles to support narrative pacing.
Results
The AI patrol and chase behaviour functioned reliably within a 2D puzzle structure without disrupting level flow.
The dynamic camera system successfully prevented player obstruction in tight environments by adjusting framing based on collision checks, improving readability during tense sequences.