Hi! I'm an independent solo game developer from Russia. And right now I'm working on my second project - Oneirophobia.
Add this game to your wishlist so you don't miss its release!
The first gameplay teaser has already been shown on my YouTube channel and Steam page.
In addition, I've published a 22-minute Devlog with English subtitles, where I talk in detail about the game, my inspiration, my creative background, and what it's like to develop a big game on my own without any professional training.
Oneirophobia is my second project that I'm working on completely alone and without using neural networks. It was almost the same with my first game Blue Light, but I had a little help with the music.
Oneirophobia is being developed on Unreal Engine 5.
And so, Oneirophobia is a survival horror game with elements of psychological horror. You will experience the role of a person suffering from a fear of dreams. Help the main character overcome his fear by going through all the terrible trials that the subconscious mind presents to us.
First I want to explain about the term “Oneirophobia”.
Oneirophobia - a term that characterizes people who are afraid of seeing scary dreams and, as a consequence, afraid to fall asleep because of this. The term was first discovered by psychoanalyst and author Mark Blechner in his book “The Dream Frontier” in 2001.
In Greek, [Oneiro] means “dream” and [Phobos] means “fear”.
Oneirophobia is common in both children and adults, and is particularly pronounced in people suffering from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).
In the story, you will play as a 19-year-old guy named Mike Sanders. He resides on a large ranch in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the “Rothwood” forest.
It's worth noting that the idea behind the game is not only about the fear of dreams, but it will also be a story about loneliness and the loss of loved ones.
Mike unfortunately lost his parents at the age of 14 due to an accident. From this, Mike inherited his large ranch where he resides.
Mike is prevented from dying alone by perhaps his only relative, a dog named Marty. Marty plays an important role in the story, as he is an integral part of Mike's life.
Almost the whole gameplay will consist in periodical switching between dream and reality, but this line will be completely blurred, and it will be up to the player to unravel it.
This, by the way, is one of the things that distinguishes my indie horror from a thousand others:
My protagonist is not an idiot who will go into any hole just to shoot a video on the Internet or solve some mystery. No, Mike is an ordinary man who is not to blame for the fact that his brain throws him into the worst nightmares, from which he has to get out at any cost.
Unlike my first game, which wasn't the most successful, I decided to put a serious emphasis on the genre this time around.
Aside from the heavy emphasis on story, I decided to almost completely abandon jumpscares and they definitely won't be the main scaring tool here.
So, inspired by some other works, I decided to emphasize primal fear or so-called “tension”. This will be the main tool of the game.
Natural orchestral instruments will also help, which will blur the line between music and sound effects.
Also, after analyzing my mistakes from the last game, I realized that I want to dilute the gameplay with interactive cutscenes and meaningful plot details as much as possible, so that this time I won't let the player get bored and let him understand that the story has its own weight.
Features of this game will pleasantly surprise you:
Motion Matching realistic animation technology used in AAA projects.
Good optimization, for the sake of which the game is developed longer than it should.
Intuitive controls.
NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR technologies.
NVIDIA Reflex and AMD Anti-Lag technologies.
HDR (High Dynamic Range) support.
Full support for xbox controllers, as well as USB and Bluetooth vibration.
Support for ultra-wide 21:9 and 32:9 monitors
Developer commentary support.
Steam Achievements.
Steam cloud saves.
Steam Family Library.
Ability to flexibly adjust the game for yourself, such as the size, color, background subtitles; adjust the volume of different types of sound or customize the gameplay for yourself.
Now let's talk a bit about the development process.
The main idea of the game was inspired by personal experience, although I don't suffer from PTSD or Oneirophobia, but for some unknown reason I often experience nightmares, after which I need to come to my senses after some more time.
In details, the game was inspired by some famous projects, such as “Outlast” (2013), “Silent Hill” (1999), the “Fears to Fathom” series, as well as classic horror movies from the 1980s, prioritized by the “Friday the 13th” franchise.
For example, it was from “Outlast” and “Friday the 13th” that I emphasized the terrifying soundtrack and emphasis on primal fear.
The inexplicably scary and violent game world was inspired by “Silent Hill”.
The variety of mechanics and interactive dialogs were inspired by the episodic horror series “Fears to Fathom”.
The user-friendly interface and interactive cutscenes were inspired by “The Last of Us” series of games.
Writing beautiful and emotional orchestration during calm or dramatic scenes was inspired by Danny Elfman's soundtracks for “Spider-Man” (2002) and “Spider-Man 2” (2004), as well as Thomas Newman's compositions for “The Green Mile” (1999).
Next, I would like to mention the sound component of the game, as it is probably one of the few skills that I am good at, and therefore I am very happy to use it in game development.
Even before the development of games, I was actively engaged in alternative voiceovers of movies in Russian. And I did it not officially, but for private viewing. So I have a good experience with voiceovers and sound mixing in general.
Also during the development of this game I started to create my own library of sounds. I've already recorded literally thousands of my own sounds for the game. For example, the barking of my dog, footsteps on different surfaces, zombie roars, squealing rats, real rain with thunder and much, much more.
All this helps me to emphasize my love and care for my own project, but besides that, I also avoid the risk of getting copyrighted for using some low-quality sound from the Internet.
In general, this project is really worthy of your attention, especially if you like to tickle your nerves.
If you were interested, be sure to add Oneirophobia to your wishlist and watch the devlog on my YouTube channel.
Also subscribe to my Telegram channel to keep up with news about the game.
Thanks in advance!