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F. M. S. D.
Playthrough
Introduction
This project is heavily inspired by Hideo Kojima's P.T. I wanted to keep the horror elements and iconic level loop of P.T., but through a reinterpretation.
You play as a father whose entire family has been killed, and you are assumed to bear responsibility for the atrocity. You are trapped in a loop until you can identify in which order the family members were killed, and in which rooms they died. It is revealed at the end that you are not entirely responsible for the death of your family: the actual murderer was an outsider, but you let them in, and were killed first. The title of the experience, F. M. S. D., stands for the order the family died in: Father, Mother, Son, Daughter.
Special thanks to Leo Dinäss for his procedural candles.
Breakdown
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Solo project spanning 3 weeks half-time (4 hours/day)
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Focus on scripted events and environmental storytelling
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Scripts for AI and loading/unloading data layers
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Made in Unreal Engine 5
Overview
Top Down
= Part of original P.T. loop
= My own additions
Living Room
Dining Room
Kitchen
Hallway
Bathroom
Son's
Bedroom
Daughter's
Bedroom
Master
Bedroom
Staircase
Flowchart
Start
End
Click on the pictures below to read the descriptions
Puzzle Design
Riddle
The father had the entire family killed
In a specific order their blood was spilled
They did not witness each other's deaths
For in separate rooms they drew their last breaths
In the same order for both birth and death the youngest was filed
The loving mother, luckily, did not have to bury any child
In their chambers the children were not when exposed to death so cold-hearted
Now lead them, in order, to where each family member departed
Visual Clues
Places of Death
1.
2.
3.
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A bottle of wine and glasses in a pool of blood in the dining room. Place of death for the mother.
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A smartphone outside of a bloodstained shower in the bathroom. Place of death for the son.
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A bloodsoaked teddybear in the master bedroom. Place of death for the daughter.
Footprints
The footprints show in which order the killer entered the different rooms. They also show that the killer left the house after the deed was done.
Candles
There are candles at each place of death. The candles are in four different stages of burning: the most intact candle is placed at the first place of death, the second most intact candle is placed at the second place of death, and so on. There are always four candles to hint to the player that four murders have occured, not three.
Conclusion
After identifying the order and the places of death and trying to complete the fifth loop, all doors will close and the doorbell will ring. The family members will respawn and point towards the entrance, leading the player to the final piece of the puzzle: opening the door for the actual murderer.
Process
Blockout
The very first thing I did was to create a blockout of the original L-shaped corridor of P.T. which I played through several times to confirm that the size felt true to the source material. After that I made a quick paper sketch top down where I added additional rooms that were adjacent to the hallway. I decided to keep the original L-shape and the descending staircase as there are quite a few benefits with that particular design. First, the L-shape ensures that not the entire hallway is visible at once, meaning that the tension will rise as you must look around the corner to see what is there. Second, the descending staircase leads to a continuous descent for each loop, meaning that the different loops will never overlap physically in engine. This facilitates the blockout phase immensely.
Data Layers
The map is divided into five data layers: one for each loop. When descending the staircase at the end of each loop, the hallway/data layer behind you unloads and the one in front of you is loaded in. This ensure a seamless level loop and considers the performance of the experience while playing.
Reflections
I am a massive fan of the horror genre, and with this project I wanted to pay homage to P.T., which I feel like I managed to do. I wanted to take the basic premise of P.T., which I identified as being the level loop and playing as a father who is assumed to have killed his family, and reimagine what that could mean.
I am happy with the progression of the loops: how things change slighty each loop, like the fog growing thicker and different doors opening up as well as different points of interest being visible. I also really like the scripted events, especially the one where the family members fall down dead as you confirm their places of death. I have not, however, truly confirmed if it is entirely clear for players what actually transpired when the family was killed. Still, I really enjoyed developing a horror experience in Unreal Engine for the very first time.
Thank you for reading!
Want to check out You, Me & Mutiny?
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