The Redshift Project
About the game
“The Redshift Project” is a first-person survival horror game for PC about an investigative journalist who, while investigating a series of disappearances, finds himself stuck in a house in the middle of a forest.
Our protagonist will soon discover that during the night the forest is populated with creatures who will try to harm him.
The player’s goal will be to survive for several nights while looking for the pieces to assemble a radio that will allow him to contact help.
Main Features
IMMERSIVE SURVIVAL HORROR EXPERIENCE
Tense first-person survival horror experience, sets in a dark, terrifying forest inhabited by monsters.
DAY-NIGHT CYCLE MECHANIC
- Daytime: Exploration of the forest, gathering resources and preparing defences.
- Night: Defence against the enemies
LIGHTING MECHANIC
The torch prevents enemies from advancing towards the house. As the game progresses, players face more enemies and less time to stand still, increasing the intensity and challenge.
INVENTORY AND RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
Players can collect and carry items in their inventory, which are crucial for survival during the night.
REPLAYABILITY AND EXPLORATION
Randomized item spawns, multiple strategies for defending against night-time attacks, and the need to explore and find resources.
PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR ELEMENTS
- Sanity bar that drops when players venture outside at night.
- Eerie atmosphere and creepy sound design that enhances the psychological horror experience.
Gameplay Loop
Days and Nights
The Team and My Role
As part of the U-Bridge Company team, I worked directly with 3 programmers, 2 designers and 2 artists, contributing to core gameplay development and overcoming technical challenges together.
In The Redshift Project, my contributions spanned across multiple key areas:
- Enemy AI: I programmed the behaviors of enemies, ensuring they reacted dynamically to environmental factors like light and player actions. This added an element of strategy to the gameplay, as players needed to manage their resources and surroundings to survive.
- UI Development: I worked on the user interface, focusing on HUD elements like life parameters, notifications, and interaction prompts. This helped streamline player interactions and improve gameplay clarity.
- Animations: I integrated animations into the game, particularly for the enemies, ensuring their movements and actions felt fluid and aligned with the game mechanics.
- General Tasks: I handled various small but crucial tasks across the project, from fixing bugs to ensuring different systems functioned together cohesively.
Problems Encountered and Solutions
During the build phase, we encountered a persistent error related to Unreal Engine: "Array has changed during ranged-for iteration." This was perplexing because we never intentionally modified arrays at runtime. After extensive debugging and rolling back changes using GitHub, we identified the root cause: the issue arose from maps of Bunker 2 and 3, which had been duplicated rather than created from scratch. This duplication introduced hidden errors, forcing us to recreate these maps properly.
