PANOPTICON
The game I'm most proud of so far is a level-based horror game named PANOPTICON. In it, you're stuck inside a monochromatic jail tower while a mannequin stalks the shadows. Your only defense is the light– the mannequin refuses to move when in the spotlight. The game comprises 10 levels of varying surroundings, each with its own strong identity and challenges.
My ultimate goal was to make each level feel unique and create their own identity while still being coherent to the overall theme. To do this, I centered each level around the idea of a functional room; there's a library, a storage room for other mannequins, and even a graveyard. Each function served to inform its geometry, and the geometry all had an important consideration in mind from the get-go; the directional light. At the center of the tower is the titular panopticon, a rotating lighthouse-like cone of brightness. It's the only source of light in Panopticon, meaning that all obstacles had to be carefully placed to create small pockets of shadow to make the level reasonably traversable.
Panopticon's levels all went through several iterations due to this fact. Having a harsh, unidirectionally moving light source for the game's only source of vision was, perhaps unsurprisingly, very hard to design for. One level, The Cages, underwent weeks of retooling due to this– I had to redesign the level from the ground up numerous times. The result gave me something that I'm deeply proud of; an unsettling experience with a strong sense of identity, and an uncompromising attitude and unique attitude towards lighting. I'm excited to refine this project even further– there may even be a paid release in its future!
