ALONE

Academy of Interactive Entertainment - Major Production

Alone was the end of year project I worked on at AIE as project and design lead. The purpose of this project was to emulate the real world game development cycle, covering the entire process from pitching an initial game concept, producing design documents, managing workload, meeting deadlines and delivering a final product.

Alone is a sci-fi, open world, survival horror game in which the player must survive in a ship overrun by its mutated crew members by hiding within the many corridors, ventilation shafts, and maintenance passages. With limited defensive capabilities and the constant need for oxygen, the player is tasked with the ultimate goal of survival and escape.

I initially pitched Alone to my colleagues for our end of year project. The concept was to create an open world environment aboard a derelict spacecraft with advanced AI enemies to pursue the player as they investigate their surroundings and endeavor to escape. 

As project lead I managed the workflow of the team (via Trello) to ensure that deadlines were able to be met and ensured consistent output among team members to achieve a coherent and well realized vision. Communication channels were maintained throughout so that everyone felt comfortable voicing their ideas and opinions for discussion, and allowed for prompt mitigation of any issues that arose throughout development. 

In fulfilling my role as a designer I primarily worked on world and level design, story and systems. The explorable environment consists of chambers you might expect to find on a space faring vessel, as well as numerous corridors, ventilation and maintenance shafts. The narrative is largely driven by audio tapes which can be found by the player throughout the ship. Through them the player learns of the ship's mission and the fate of it's passengers and crew. 

Major systems include the functionality of the enemy AI (how they track and pursue the player), navigation driven by  environmental stimuli and cues, as well as an on board map accessed via standing computer terminals, a Geiger counter for determining the proximity of enemies, and a linear objective structure. 

Daniel Spiteri (Project Lead) · Zach Rault

James Koehne · John Makron Ikonomou 

Jakob Dillon 

Brodie Martin 

Blake Crane

Murray Lorden

Brendan Barnett · Xanthe Folan

Alex Haslam · Elkanah Hoch