The Chant

A psychedelic survival horror game that focuses on a ritual gone wrong during a spiritual retreat. Published by Prime Matter and developed by Brass Token. My role on this project was working as a Game Designer.

My Work

While a part of this project, I had a hand in a lot of different aspects of the game and had many jobs I was given lead on. I designed the layout, function, and puzzles of some key locations in the game as well as some side areas such as the Commune Farm, the Wretcher Arena, and the Saw Mill. My goal and focus was to create engaging designs that allowed for multiple routes for the player to travel, creating a more dynamic landscape and experience for the player. I wanted players to feel as though their exploration of the world was rewarded, but also experience different encounters or challenges based on the routes they take. Additionally, I designed locations and events that used environmental storytelling to pique the player’s interest in the background story and history of the island and its inhabitants. Helping design lore notes that would offer hints to items or resources while also coming across as genuine and diegetic or using objects and the environment to allow the player to recreate the events that took place in their imagination.

I designed some encounters in the game and was one of the main editors of enemy pathing. This allowed me to create unique challenges and fights that would combine different enemies and skill sets to pose distinctive challenges, both challenging the player and encouraging different lines of thinking or weighing the risk/reward of certain encounters. This posed an interesting challenge to me as I had to plan out routes enemies would naturally take, ambushes that made sense but weren’t always predictable, and the different parameters that dictated when an enemy would continue the chase and when they would return to their original paths.

I was placed in charge of streaming levels and collision implementation throughout the entire game. This was a large responsibility as it required me to take many other considerations into account such as optimization, enemy pathing, how the camera interacts with the environment, as well as creating a playable space where the world seamlessly streams in and out outside of the user’s view.

Outside of organization and desgin, I also assisted with some motion capture for the main character and the Ram Cultist enemy. With previous experience in acting work, I loved the chance to embody some of the characters that I was working with and be a part of the design process in multiple aspects. I recorded multiple attacking and idle animations for Jess as well as all the animations that you see from the Ram Cultists throughout the game. It was a fun chance to be able to do this work, then go into the editor and say “Alright, I’ll put down 3 of me here, and one of this enemy”.

What I Learned

Being able to work on this game was monumental learning experience for me. It offered the chance to work with an amazing group of skilled designers who helped me and mentored me develop many of the skills. It allowed for a unique opportunity to collaborate on ideas and build off each other’s ideas to create a more engaging experience.

I gained experience developing spaces and environments that could offer more opportunities for the player to interact or define their own experience. I learned more about how to grab a player’s attention and help direct them around an environment using the environment itself, items and resources, or using enemies to guide the player through a level. My technical skills in Unreal Engine allowed me to learn and improve my work in blueprinting events, dialogue, enemy encounters, and progression work. This allowed me to contribute further to the project has opened up new avenues in my own work.