Out of Sight

• Role: Product Owner, Game & UX Designer, Visual Scripting

• Project length: 6 weeks

• Engine: Unreal Engine 4

• Genre: Puzzle/Stealth Thriller

• Team size: 8 people
(4 designers and 4 artists)

GAME & UX DESIGN

• Core gameplay loop

• Mechanics

• Progression and onboarding

PRODUCT OWNER

• Conveying the team vision and maintaining the GDD

• Managing Jira backlog

• Organizing playtests and feedback

VISUAL SCRIPTING

• AI behavior

• Level mechanics

• Player character (partly)

Place Teddy Bear

The primary mechanic allows the player to place their teddy bear at set locations (teddy points). Placing down the camera lets the player swap to moving the character independently from the camera.

Move Boxes

By moving boxes around the player can modify their surrounding, to reach new locations and heights. We use this mechanic as a way of providing a familiar obstable to the puzzle complexity.

Lift Up Teddy

The character’s low point-of-view is nicely paired with this lift-up mechanic that allows the player to see above furniture. It provides a safe way to inspect the environment while maintaning intricacy.

Chase Player

If the kidnapper sees the player’s character they will stop what they were doing and hunt you down. Once you are spotted, you will be caught. This requires the player to learn the AI’s behavior if they are to overcome its presence.

React to Event

The player can trigger events that the kidnapper reacts to. Through this mechanic, the player can make the AI perform tasks for the them. However, triggering an event always comes with a risk of being caught.

Rotate/Cooking

The kidnapper’s default state is to be cooking in the kitchen, rotating from one point of view to another. The player needs to avoid being seen by the AI’s sight if they are to sneak over to the other side of the room.

Pick Up Items

The majority of the puzzles have a key and lock set-up. Locating the keys is one thing, but finding a way to reach them can be a lot more difficult.

Interact

To reach the key items the player needs to interact with objects around the house. Moving boxes to jump on, smashing vases etc.

Distract Kidnapper

The final puzzle mechanic involves the kidnapper. The player can cause the AI to move to certain locations at certain times, opening doors for the player.

Independent Camera Movement

The first camera event requires the player to place the teddy on a hook, that then moves along a rope. This changes the way the player have learned to use the camera mechanic, by providing an overview while the camera is moving. It lets the player progress in the level while not needing to return to the teddy point where they left their teddy bear. This lets both the camera and the player move independently.

Chased By Your Own Eyes

In the other event the kidnapper takes the teddy bear and holds it for themselves. It then chases the player down the hall while holding the teddy in front of them. This becomes a true second person perspective experience, where the player is running away from their own eyes. It lets the player see their surrounding, themselves, and the distance between themselves and the impending danger.

The basement focuses on teaching the player all the mechanics in a ”safe” environment. We introduce the kidnapper’s presence, but the player is never threatened by it.

The kitchen is the main level, where the player needs to use all the mechanics they have learned, while avoiding the added threat of the kidnapper that is lurking around.

The hallway is where the player makes their final run for freedom. Here, the kidnapper chases you in an intense sequence that creates a lasting impression that breaks the otherwise stealthy gameplay.

Part 1 – The Basement

1. Starts in crib, introduce camera mechanic.
2. Jump up the ledges.
3. Lift up teddy, can see kidnapper lurking.
4. Move first box.
5. Find the key.
6. Open the lock to the fuse box.
7. Find the missing fuse for the fuse box.
8. Ride the food elevator.

Part 2 – The Kitchen

9. Exits food elevator.
10. Activate hook line (moving camera introduced).
11. Break the vase, causes the kidnapper to open the door.
12. Activate second hook line.
13. Avoid being seen while moving the box to the other side.
14. Reach the first key.
15. Distract the kidnapper with the TV.
16. Reach the second key.
17. Unlock the hallway door.

Part 3 – The Hallway

18. Enters the hallway, chased by the kidnapper.
19. Run to the window and make your escape.

Game Feel

In order for us to allow the player to become immersed by the unsettling environment, the gameplay mechanics needed to be very smooth and easy to use. This included removing all unnecessary steps in the process of performing tasks, so everything can be executed with just one click. It also meant seamlessly changing the player’s movement and rotation to always face the camera’s forward direction.

Player Guidance

We noticed during playtesting that a great amount of handholding was required to solve some puzzles. Instead of stating the objectives outright we give hints towards the solutions. As the player approaches key objects a UI pop-up will appear saying: ”That vase looks fragile..” or ”The elevator seems to be turned off..”. These interactables are highlighted when the player is close to them. With this intricate system we wanted the players to feel like they came up with the solutions themselves since we only hint at what to do, not how to do it.

Onboarding

Since the camera mechanic was unfamiliar to many playtesters we put a lot of focus on the onboarding of the mechanic. We decided to gate the player by only being able to take the next step once they had completed their current one. By taking one thing at a time we were able to ensure that the player felt comfortable with picking up and placing the teddy bear before they progressed into the kitchen level where they would need to use the mechanic while also being under threat from the kidnapper.

Teddy Points

We experimented with allowing the player to place the teddy anywhere but it was too difficult to control as the player’s didn’t know where to go or what to do. It became clear during playtesting that we needed set teddy points that give overview and also face towards the objectives. A core part of the user experience is exploring the rooms to find where you can place your teddy bear. Such an important gameplay element needed to be easily recognizable with a clear VFX at range, and for extra clarity we also added a highlighted teddy silhouette when the player gets close to it.

Game Vision – The Workflow

As the product owner of this game I contributed greatly to the core idea, which was then expanded upon by the whole team in several brainstorm sessions, that were eventually decided upon by majority vote. I was then tasked with spearheading the designer squad as we ironed out the mechanics, levels and overall progression of the game. Out of Sight was a collective effort that was mapped out using Miro.

Playtesting – Early and Often

Since we decided not to play it safe and explore an unknown mechanic (the 2nd person perspective) it meant we needed to playtest the game a lot. I was tasked with organizing many of the playtests and gathered feedback from every single one. This large collection of notes resulted from friends, mentors and industry professionals playtesting all stages of our game. I then analyzed the feedback and evaluated what was beneficial and what was excessive.

Organization – Scrum and Jira

Communication and organization were fundamental in this project. I wrote and updated the GDD, and held morning and end-of-day meetings every day to make sure everyone knew what had been done and what needed to be done going forwards. I participated in scrum and documented the meetings with a protocol so everyone could stay up to date. It was also my responsibility to keep track of the Jira backlog, where I added bug tickets from my daily personal playtest.

AI Behavior

I had primary responsibility for the AI scripting, and did most everything on it. Including the AI actor itself, the AI controller, the animation blueprint, the behavior tree and blackboard as well as the behavior tree tasks and world location actors or triggers. I did the AI more complex than was needed for the game, and needed to remove some features that made the AI lose the player while it was chasing them, caused by the kidnapper hurting his back from running for too long.

Level Mechanics

Some of the level mechanics I scripted include the hook mechanic with the hooks themselves, their trigger and the rope they slide along. I also integrated the moving boxes and vase so that they could operate in tandem with our player character without breaking the movement system. Finally, I scripted the TV and the reaction events that causes the AI to investigate it.

Player Character (partly)

I was not the main scripter for the player character, but I created some of the core features of the game. These include picking up and placing the teddy bear, and the teddy points (placement locations). I also scripted the jumping ability as well as tweaking many variables to make sure the gameplay experience was smooth and had a nice flow.

When releasing the game on itch.io we were pleasantly surprised with the reception of our game. The game really took off by itself without us needing to do any marketing at all!

It didn’t take long for the game to be featured as a top game on itch.io and the players who downloaded our game often came back with great comments on our page.

There were many YouTube creators that made ”Let’s Play” videos of the game, and already on the first day the videos generated over 100 000 views. After a week the game had been downloaded more than 2500 times and had over 1 000 000 total views on YouTube. The game was also reviewed and recommended in Taiwanese, Korean and English articles which further increased the game’s exposure.

”[…] the visual design is excellent and the core second person perspective mechanics are used in some very creative ways. It’s got some great ideas and it would be great to see it expanded on in the future.” – Free Game Planet (2022-03-09).

GAME DESIGNERS

• Per Hallros
• Damien Hallström
• Mattias Nordebäck
• Sigge Lindberg

3D ARTISTS

• Simon Norrmén
• Clara Cox
• Eric Östlund
• Andrea Rossino