For three years, from 2017 – 2020, I went to university to study game development. It was a course that taught me all I needed to know about programming video games along with other aspects such as animation, music, shaders, 3D modelling and more.
In the third year, we had to write a 10,000-word dissertation and create a project alongside it. Typically, for my course, this project was a game. The game could be whatever you wanted, and for me, that was The Middle Lands.
It was originally intended to be a ‘horror’ game, where the creepy detailed environment would cooperate with the music to create a psychological fear.
Did I reach that goal? Who can say?
This page will have details, information, pictures and more about the project.
A little disclaimer: This project features A LOT of random assets. We weren’t being marked on our creation of assets as that wasn’t our course. You’ll see a bunch of free Unity Assets in these screenshots along with standard characters.
Story:
Upon waking up after a short nap, you find that your parents still haven’t returned from their trip. You receive a message from your dad who tells you they will be a while longer, and that some books are open downstairs for you to read.
The books he’s left out are strange ones, especially the one that speaks of various creatures that seem almost too impossible to be true.
But, once you close the book, your phone starts to vibrate again, and this time, it’s from an unknown number, and they seem to know about the book you just read. And, to make things worse, they want to meet you.
You venture outside, into the dark. You can only listen to the words that were said on your phone, and how you need to ignore them and journey to the top of the shrine.
There, you meet two strange twins who ask you to help free them, along with the other spirits. All you can do is agree.
Features:
The main focus of this project was atmosphere and world. Because of that, it took an RPG-like approach and featured cutscenes and dialogue. The story was important and incomplete without it. In total, if you know where you are going, you can beat the game in about 10-20 minutes. If you didn’t know where to go, maybe you could spend an hour walking around. I tried to make as many parts of the world feel alive as possible, with a forest the player can explore, as well as a strange lake.
Alongside the world, the player has a mobile phone with them. This phone acts as their flashlight but only has a limited charge. If the player’s phone runs out of charge, they can’t use their light or receive any text messages!
These text messages appear throughout the story and are important in helping the player with hints, and also important story information.
Alongside this, was a heartbeat monitor. This heartbeat monitor was sadly never implemented. It was going to go up and down depending on the world around them, and what they saw and heard, but it was never finished. At most, all it does is go up for sound, but sadly not visuals.
Other:
There isn’t much information I can put on this page. But, I did write a blog post about this a while ago, so if you want more information then you can check the link at the end of this post. Additionally, if you have a question, please ask me on Twitter or on this blog. I’ll be happy to answer.
Sadly, I cannot release this game publicly. Due to copyright laws, it is impossible. I hope to have more information about this old project soon, with more screenshots and even a video(?).
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