Absention - A VR mystery survival horror game

Brucey540

Hi Everyone,

Teaser Trailer here

I have just announced a mystery survival horror game by my Sydney-based indie start-up, Dream Wave Games. Currently we are only 2 developers but looking to expand during development.

It’s being built from the ground up to support Oculus VR, built in UE4 and is focused on exploration and stealth. Some inspirations are Kubrick's The Shining, Alien, Resident Evil and Majora's Mask.

I’m still in Pre-Alpha and looking to build a community and get early feedback. I have a greenlight concept page, dev blog and Twitter up now. Let me know you you think!

Cheers,
Rob

Additional Links:
Steam Greenlight
Website
Facebook
Me on Twitter

Some In-engine screenshots

snake85027

looks great, I cant see the video though.

Brucey540

Thanks. It should link to the youtube video.
https://youtu.be/r9oM96ar4_w

chacha

Looking great, I particularly like the level of detail. Are those actual in-game screen captures? If so, I will mos-def look forward to the completed piece.

adam

The trailer comes off more like a video made for an artists portfolio and not a trailer for a game. I say that only because it falls victim to a trend in environment art videos that I personally despise: Forward, swooping dolly shots or vertical and horizontal dolly shots that are overly dramatic and clearly focused on an individual art piece.

As an aside: I get why artists do this, I just don't think it helps the overall presentation of their environment by doing these kinds of shots. An example is the shot at 0:48 in the trailer, and the shot just before it. There is so much movement in the camera that I had to pause the movie to check out the room. I shouldn't have to do that.

I use this video all the time when I want to give an example of dolly shots done well:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY055QEPM18[/ame]


They're slow, dramatic, and they give the environment a chance to come through to the viewer. Skip all that fancy out-of-focus-but-now-its-in-focus depth-of-field bullshit. Or if you're inspired by it, use it with restraint and have purpose behind it.

In my opinion, those dramatic, quick moving shots are all appropriate when establishing a scene - like the very opening shot the trailer starts out with. That's great. Right away I understand we're in a forest, in a chalet somewhere. After that, though, I don't think that type of shot helps you much.

I also think you need to show more in-game shots. "These were taken in-game." I'd argue that these were take in-engine, and you need to instead show some video of what it'll look like from the players perspective. I don't mean to show the VR view with a split view like you see in the VR videos online, just show a single-view, non-VR, first-person perspective of what the gameplay is. This will also help pull it away from 'environment art portfolio video' and more in to the realm of 'video game trailer'.

- 2 cents.

Brucey540

Hi Adam thanks for taking the time to give me some feedback. I certainly agree with a lot of your comments. I’m the creator and sole artist on this project with 1 programmer working on functionality and gameplay elements so I’m not quite ready to show gameplay yet.

Yes, this is completely recorded within Unreal Engine 4.
Great video example btw!

My goal for this teaser video was to set a mood and get viewers excited about what it might be about. It certainly feels like a Showreel piece in the beginning but I hoped I could inject enough story clues and sounds to make it interesting. An important feature of the game will be telling the story though the environments and detailed objects so some close-up, extreme depth of field shots felt appropriate. The next video will definitely be the gameplay trailer and be mostly in first person 

Again, I appreciate your comments and I will take them on board for the gameplay trailer.

Cheers,
Rob

fadox

The artwork is great so far :thumbup:

wrote:

TIME LOOP GAMEPLAY
You must relive the same night, but don’t make the same mistakes. Remember what you've learned and adapt.

Cant wait to see how it will work.

paco

Looks really good! Can't wait to see the gameplay develop.

Holland

The teaser trailer looks great! Good work with the lighting too, can't wait to see the final game.

Rawbert

Virtual Reality game?
No way this would run smooth with a Oculus Rift dk2, unless you can prove me wrong!
Cant wait for the results, keep it up.