Abduction 51

Solo DigiPen project November - December 2021

Unity

Overview

Abduction 51 is a simple interactive experience with no gameplay beyond being a walking simulator. The purpose of this project was to get the player to have the feeling of being abducted by a UFO, to immerse them as much as possible into this within the very short time frame of the project through ambience, UX, sound design, lighting, and visual work.

I did not model the farm used in the project as it was a free asset.

Skills Honed

Sound Design

Audiomixing

Unity

UX

Player Guidance

Gamefeel

Design Work

Immersing the Player

Setting the Scene

The farm model I started with was set in the daytime and not at all appropriate for the feel I wanted to create, so I made use of a dark lighting and made things spooky with a mysterious sounding soundtrack. As Unity's lighting effects didn't provide as much freedom as I wanted, I added a second lighting effect, a transparent yellow cylinder that expanded out from the ship as the abduction began.

Player Guidance

The game's scope was supposed to be very small, but I didn't want to just drop the player immediately into the abduction with no context, because that wouldn't have the same effect. At the same time, it was a problem that I did not want the player to aimlessly wander around the farm with no distinguishing features in it, because there was only one thing I wanted them to see. In playtesting, it was quite dull when players wandered the farm with no guidance for a while before finding the abduction area. Because of this, I blocked off areas that were irrelevant for the player to explore, trying to make it look natural in the game world. This also helped to hide areas of the game that were not as well modeled.

The only two interactive items on the farm before the abduction were a chicken going towards the player’s chicken coop destination, and the slowly increasing volume of the ship’s audio as the player approached it. The loudest audio was by far the chickens which was done with 3D audio, encouraging players to go to it. The golden path was the dirt road, clearing showing my intended route for players.

Abduction Immersion

Once the abduction began, the chickens levitated alongside the player at a similar rate, dust particles shot up everywhere, and the music changed. A ray of lights changed the illumination of the scene, and a series of closely spaced rings resembling an alien's tractor beam would descend and expand, eventually blocking the view of the rest of the scene.

Inflicting a sense of hopelessness through loss of control

Beginning this interactive experience with a walking simulator allowed me to remove the ability to walk when the time was right. This helped me instill a feeling of helplessness in the player. Beginning at that moment, the player could only look around and view their surroundings as they were being abducted. Even that ability was made more difficult as the player began involuntarily rotating as they were lifted. All of this further added to the element of powerlessness.

Post Mortem

Players all had the audible, visible reactions when the abduction began that I wanted them to have.
Players experienced discomfort at the loss of control and felt helpless during the abduction.
The spooky farm at night from the start of the game made players feel uneasy.

The loss of control during the final phase of the abduction was a bit too strong, as being unable to move the camera around freely meant players could miss some of the immersive elements since they could not see them.
The chicken moving towards the coop at the start of the game would often be missed by players due to the chicken’s immediate departure rather than departing as the player approached it.

I learned that many sounds can be layered together in audio to create an immersive experience. During the abduction experience, I overlapped music, variations of gravel sounds, chickens, the UFO, and the tractor beam.
Players can and will wander to places you don't want them to go if you don't stop them or provide clear guidance.

Things that went right:

Things that went wrong:

What I've learned from this experience: