Greetings, slayers!
It might be difficult to believe, but Phantom Halls didn't actually spring into existence, immaculately birthed out of the darkness. Instead, a team of hardworking talented folks spent a rather long time turning realising our vision of a playful yet sinister reality. Today, we wanted to share with you a little snapshot of what that entailed: the craft of Phantom Halls, from concept to (not-quite-)completion!
Early Prototype
It began, of course, with an idea: a squad based game in which assorted quirky characters, each with their own attacks and controls, battle their way through a haunted house to escape the evil within. Originally we were thinking about a tactical turn-based RPG, but then we took a turn off the beaten path... what if all these characters could be controlled in real time? What if the teen-monster-hunting-squad moved as a group commanded by a single controller? Would that be fun?
We spun up a very quick Unity prototype to see...
It turned out it was! Or at least, we felt it a strong enough experience to work with. So, alongside working on the core game loop and mechanics, we began to think about the environment in which the game would take place, and the style in which it would be rendered.
The Mansion
We always had a pretty good sense of what we wanted the mansion itself to look like - an off kilter structure, leaning with subsidence, the floors buckled, the windows shuttered - the ultimate creepy old house on the hill!
The image below shows our initial concept art on the left, through wireframing and texturing to the right.
Characters and Enemies
We knew we wanted the game to have a unique look and feel. We also wanted to create something that was accessible to the widest number of players, and which we could continue to iterate on rapidly. Finding an art style to meet those requirements was a challenge.
Our initial character and enemy sketches were more organic and natural-looking.
But over time we began to develop a papercraft style, with stylised character concept art that would suit low-poly models, allowing the game to run smoothly across a range of machines while looking - we like to think - pretty darn cool.
Putting the World Together
Each time you play Phantom Halls, the world is constructed on the fly as it loads. You'll no doubt have noticed that no two playthroughs of the same quest are the same.
As well as getting the art style right, it was important to us that we could create the feel of a smoothly flowing experience, while ensuring large amounts of variety each and every time.
The wireframe model above shows a single room 'block'. As you can see, it's an independent area - walls, floors, static objects, stairs and a door at each end, but nothing else contained within it.
We have an increasingly large number of these independent blocks, which the game pieces together based on various rules, then populates procedurally with the enemies, items, traps and characters that you see in the game.
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Remember, Phantom Halls is continually evolving, with new content being added regularly - new characters, enemies, traps, quests and environments. We'll be sure to bring you more updates in the future as to how things are shaping up.
Until next time, RIP folks!