Ghost Hunter Hunter

Our assignment was to work in a group and create a game with a playable level with various requirements. We had a lot of freedom with the project we would create, so after our team discussed, we decided on a game where you would play as a ghost that was attempting to fend off ghost hunters from its home. We really liked taking the ghost hunter game idea (Luigi’s Mansion, Phasmophobia) and flipping it on its head and having the player play as the ghost instead. 

As we continued developing the game, we began to add onto the overall vision of the game with different mechanics and narrative beats. We decided to theme the game around a reality TV show where ghost hunters went into homes to capture ghosts, along with an eccentric host. We decided the ghost should be able to phase through the environment due to its intangibility and also gave it the ability to possess objects to scare away ghost hunters.  

In the end, we created Ghost Hunter Hunter. Every night, ghost hunters enter your house to find and capture the ghost. As the ghost, you can phase through walls, ceilings, and the floor to navigate your house while possessing objects to scare away ghost hunters. You can burst open your fridge, shake the chandelier, even take a shower, to lure ghost hunters closer and scare them away. Successfully freaking out the ghost hunters will result in a successful night, while getting documented too much will result in your capture. There is also a tutorial where you play as a captured ghost that tries to escape the facility it is kept in, all while ghost hunters storm the area, attempting to recapture you. 

What are you most proud of for this project?

We’re most proud of creating a 2.5D game which contains 2D sprites that can exist and navigate within a 3D environment. A lot of work went into making the experience for players as easy as possible, which included the orientation and position of the sprites, the lighting, and seamless transparency of walls. 

Any tips or advice you have for incoming/current AET Majors that really helped you?

Try to reach out of your comfort zone and try something new in every project you work on. Slowly you’ll accrue a lot more skills and have more options when looking for solutions to a problem or trying to accomplish a certain task. For scripters, try not to feel too awful when debugging. Everybody has those moments where we forget the most obvious bug that has been staring at us and we just fail to notice. Every time you catch one of these bugs that gives you trouble, you’ll remember it and it will be easier to notice next time.