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It Waits in the Deep

🛠️ Key Contributions: Interaction Framework (Tap/Hold), Object Inspect & Manipulation, Milestone Build Pipeline
🧩 Dev Role: Unity Developer
🕹️ Game Engine: Unity 6

  • Key Contributions:

    • Dynamic Emotional State and Stamina System:

      • Designed a unique emotional state and stamina mechanic that influences gameplay, adapting character responses to player choices to promote immersive gameplay.

    • Complex AI and NPC Interactions:

      • Developed an AI-driven system that includes enemy tracking and a nuanced friendship mechanic with the robot companion, fostering a complex player-NPC relationship that impacts gameplay and narrative.

    • Integrated Stealth and Puzzle Mechanics:

      • Blended stealth, puzzle-solving, and platforming elements within the game world to challenge players, enhance story immersion, and support the overarching theme of survival.


    Engine:
    Unreal Engine 5
     
    Status: 
    In Development
     


    Project Summary:
    AL+ONE is a 3D third-person survival horror game where players guide a young child through a surreal frozen world, balancing survival and responsibility over a vulnerable robot companion. Designed to foster psychological engagement, the game’s mechanics—such as a dynamic fear and happiness system—adapt to player choices, impacting gameplay and narrative. Through this interactive design, AL+ONE aims to immerse players in a meaningful experience, evoking reflection on their choices and exploring video games as tools for emotional learning.

    Primary Gameplay Loop:
    Players navigate a dangerous, frozen landscape, choosing whether to protect a vulnerable robot companion while balancing exploration, puzzle-solving, and fear management. To survive, they must hide, move quietly, and manage their emotional state as relentless, otherworldly entities hunt them.

    ⚙️ Technical

    Key Contributions (Detailed):

    • Interaction Framework (Tap vs Hold):

      • Built a modular “verbs” interaction layer (Interact / Hold / Manipulate) designed to work for both VR and non-VR inputs. The current prototype focuses on making Interact vs Manipulate effortlessly understandable, with consistent rules the player can learn quickly.

    • Object Handling + Inspect/Present Workflow:

      • Implemented stable pickup/hold/drop behavior and an inspect/present mode so players can bring objects forward and rotate them for close reads—critical for validating comfort, control feel, and interaction clarity before VR hands are fully integrated.

    • Milestone Build Pipeline + Dev Testing Hooks:

      • Set up development/release build profiles with DEV-only tooling support (Debug HUD + tunables) to iterate quickly and publish focused prototype milestones on a regular schedule.


    Scripting Method:
    C#

    Game Engine:
    Unity 6

    📁 Project Details

    Context:
    Professional Project (Original IP)

    Team Size:
    Small Team (2–5)

    Genre:
    Survival Horror

    Dev Role:
    Unity Developer — building gameplay interactions, inputs, and upcoming core-loop systems in Unity (C#).

    Project Status:
    In Development (biweekly prototype drops on itch)

    Project Summary:
    It Waits in the Deep is a VR survival horror game set in the darkness of the ocean floor, where your only shot at salvation is recovering the scattered parts of an emergency signal beacon. Hold onto sanity and remain alert as more than just water moves around you. Built around navigating under uncertainty with immersive interactions and constant threats, the experience is designed to keep players tense, curious, and always one mistake away from disappearing into the depths.

    🎮 Gameplay

    Game Perspective:
    3D

    Camera Type:
    First-Person

    Primary Gameplay Loop:
    Leave the shark cage safe zone → use sonar to locate beacon parts → manage sanity and stay safe → return to cage and install parts → repeat.

  • In active development, current mechanics shown in Development Videos.

    Game Systems:​​

    NPC and AI Behavior:​​​

    ​Player Abilities:​

  • Development Videos:​

    Visual Assets:

    Game Design Documents:

  • Playable Prototype Build (Itch.io):

    ​
    Development Video (v0.0.1 - Interaction Prototype):

    • Short clip demonstrating the current interaction foundation: tap vs hold behavior, inspect/present, object handling, and hand switching (see Development section above).

    ​
    Changelog:

    • v0.0.1 - Interaction Prototype: Tap/hold, inspect/present, drop, hand switch (greybox)

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