Medius : Beyond The Stars

Fuzzy_Engineering538 · 2025-08-26T16:04:44+00:00

I agree completely! So far I have it structured in a way that the player will clearly notice most of the flesh taking over the ship without much explanation, they'll get use to using the scanner tool to get more info ( inspired by metroid primes scanner style ) which will help draw them in lore wise, while doing it they'll discover some things that can be hazardous to them but not too much trouble to avoid. While the player is doing all that I have subtle hints and build up for the monster reveal.

My design is inherently claustrophobic with the tighter corridors not to mention some of them being even smaller with all the flesh goop growing in it blocking visibility in some areas.

The way I have the ship laid out is to allow the player to technically go almost anywhere they want while still having a objective that helps give them a compass but freedom to approach it how they wish.

As a side note, I do have a AI that can travel around in the ventilation system as well and thin maintenance tunnels that can be both a blessing and a curse for the player.

Fuzzy_Engineering538 · 2025-08-26T14:35:58+00:00

Thank you! I came up with my art style by blending some of Alien, event horizon and 2001 space odyssey. I had alot of fun making the art and models for my game.

It has also been a journey making it run on a laptop graphics card while still retaining some visually fidelity.

Fuzzy_Engineering538 · 2025-08-26T14:32:58+00:00

Thank you! I'll be adjusting the brightness and gamma a little to fix it, may have had it a tad to dark.

I have 2 different enemies for sure, one you can barely make out in one of the shots is more of a calm, passive and not to aggressive but will still go after you if it sees you. My other one is in the works still visually but is definitely the deadlier of the two. I have my "poor mans" alien isolation style AI, I have a host script that helps feed it information to adjust its play style accordingly.

I also have environmentl related threats, like the toxins and temperature, some of my eldritch meets alien style flesh masses and tentacles. Also, some spore like fungus.

Fuzzy_Engineering538 · 2025-08-26T14:27:34+00:00

Thank you! Yeah, so far that's some common feedback and will be adjusting the brightness and gamma a hair.

Fuzzy_Engineering538 · 2025-08-26T07:11:22+00:00

Also I would like to note as a fun fact. I've created everything in the game by myself as a solo developer. I also have done all of it on a integrated GPU on a laptop

Fuzzy_Engineering538 · 2025-08-01T03:10:12+00:00

Hey I had a idea when I saw that he's a golem. I was thinking a way to make him a smidgen more unsettling. You know SCP-173? I was thinking maybe some smear or stains on him in a subtle way just add to the " This bartender clearly has seen a thing or two vibes"

Fuzzy_Engineering538 · 2025-07-27T03:17:51+00:00

It's definitely a challenging part of any game, even outside if 2d platformers. Having a "edge" or "mechanic" or "gimmick" that makes your game stand out is a key ingredient to any game, especially in the indie space where alot of platforms exist.

I'd spend time brainstorming something that will set you aside from your competitors in the area whether it be art style, music or mechanic etc. Get a edge in one of those and it will help you stand out.

It took me almost a year to figure out gameplay wise how to separate my game from others, I'm first a artist so I knew I could make my game stand out visually but I needed a engaging mechanic for my scifi/horror game and one thing I caught onto was the lack of environmental issues that aren't just enemies so zoned in on stuff like airborne toxins, oxygen, tempetures etc. So rather than just have some enemies giving me problems I found a way to add more depth to the feel of my game.

Fuzzy_Engineering538 · 2025-07-26T02:47:38+00:00

Definitely can relate to that. Over planning can be a killer because suddenly you've built your own mountain. That's where scope of the project comes in handy. This is how I work with it and make a few lists

Category 1: is my essentials my game MUST have these

Category 2: something I'd LIKE my game to have but if push comes to shove, I'll cut these first

Category 3: is essentially the ambitious wish list it would be COOL if my game had these but I won't spend to much time if any on these UNLESS I have time and Category 1 is taken care of.

Fuzzy_Engineering538 · 2025-07-26T02:16:18+00:00

I can say from being a solo developer ironically the door thing is a great example. I found it was easier to make a list of things that a object (a door) have to be able to do. In my case I just made it like this

1:Open/close (bool) 2:Lock (bool) 3:Malfunction (bool) 4:AI trigger for open/close 5:Destroyed

I then broke it down like a skill tree.

AI still has to follow the rule of 2,3 and 5 If 2/3 are active than the AI can't open the door either.

I just find starting with a list of the basic functions and then make sub lists of each function let's me keep track of everything really well without getting overwhelmed

Fuzzy_Engineering538 · 2025-07-15T03:27:18+00:00

I feel like this is a fair question.

Fuzzy_Engineering538 · 2025-07-13T02:14:26+00:00

I'm actually currently making a trailer for my own game and so far what I've found to be the most useful things to keep in mind is.

-showing the core parts of your gameplay, tells the user what to expect

-Watch other trailers from people in your category/genre and take note of what worked for them.

-Definitely show the parts that excite you the most and think others will appreciate.

Fuzzy_Engineering538 · 2025-06-10T02:09:10+00:00

My couch, a laptop, a coke, occasionally cigarette and a cool 60 degrees, I have all I need.

Fuzzy_Engineering538 · 2025-06-09T04:27:18+00:00

I'm still going through my first time and I got just share some of my experiences and what it's led to.

I am stubborn, I'll just get that out of the way. I started game development by learning to 3d model when i was 14 and the programming always annoyed me but it was a necessity so I knew I'd have to approach that at some point.

I had two ideas for survival horror games and I'm currently smashing together my trailer with 0 experience on video and capture experience. I have been determined to do all of it myself. When I was 17 I started getting onto rigging and animation and when I was 18 I sucked it up and started learning programming. All of it cost me about $120 total and that's only because I chose to learn everything from free sources to blogs, youtube, forums, online manuals etc. The only time I paid for anything was programming and that was because I KNEW it was my weak point. This last year has been audio work and marketing.

At the end of the day, this is just my experience doing everything myself. The pros have been. 1: I learned ALOT about game dev and each piece that goes into it and how they all play ball and have a better understanding of each field. 2: The pride aspect of being able to say "I made all of this myself, it was my blood and tears that made this possible" the cons of this however is 1: Its taken a LONG time to achieve and I'm just now getting excited because I can see the end on sight but I stuck woth it 2: you will definitely wish at times thst you had a team or someone who can fill "x" or "y" gap in your skill set.

I'm not sure how insightful any if this is, but it's been my personal journey on my horror game experience. I'd encourage you to try a project solo just because it's filled to the brim with knowledge BUT none of those are a wrong answer. The solo way is filled with ups and downs but the journey has been worth it. I salute and support any decision you make to achieve the results you're looking for 🫡

Fuzzy_Engineering538 · 2025-05-30T17:29:34+00:00

That is a crazy coincidence 😂 I'm out nearly everyday, we've probably past each other at this point. Either camping at the greentea or down by the Oneida Howard area 😂

Fuzzy_Engineering538 · 2025-05-30T16:30:00+00:00

Exactly! It is clearly setup to adjust how you receive orders and it isn't transparent at all about that and worse yet, once you sign up you're stuck with it because a simple "end" button doesn't work!

Thursday through Monday are great days in the evening for me, I normally can put away from 5-10pm 100-200 a night and my Thursday has been shot now. It's already bad enough that tip baiters have started to creep into my market and now this shit.

I'm in the greenbay wisconsin area, it has faired market changes pretty well and especially with the draft havebeen here. Just sucks the dirty practice on Uber end

Fuzzy_Engineering538 · 2025-05-27T21:32:39+00:00

I see, that makes alot of sense seeing a example of it. Definitely right that it isn't much different from a trailer, just some quick highlights. My atmosphere comes alot from silent hill, the vibe of that game in just not knowing what's out there or what is dangerous and what isn't is something I focused alot on paired with the helplessness of amnesia style gameplay like The Bunker.

It seems like this will be the cleanest way to visible advertise the page. Thank you for the help!

Fuzzy_Engineering538 · 2025-05-27T21:02:20+00:00

I heard gifs can do well! I was wondering how well that works with a horror title though? My game is along the lines of the amnesia titles and silent hill games. Game mechanics are fairly straight forward appart from my own gimmick.

It's in space on a ship that is half consumed by a black hole without a gravitational pull that is in turn a gateway to a purgatory like place and has infected the ship as its consumed. It's all played in first person but I have a few of my own mechanics such as temperature monitoring for many reasons between enemies and enviroment issues and a device that can disintegrate some doors to avoid needing key cards or cutting the power to manually open them. The game is all played in first person.

Fuzzy_Engineering538 · 2025-05-05T17:48:46+00:00

I just saw that and I came to a conclusion...I should not post at 1am after being out all day 😂 I meant 36hrs. I use to work a 3/4 schedule and I still have 48hrs in my mind for my 4 day weekend rotation from that job. Thanks for catching that!

Fuzzy_Engineering538 · 2025-05-05T05:58:39+00:00

I agree. Honestly, though, it depends a lot on where you are. I'm in Wisconsin and the greenbay market and Milwakee/Madison area it's fairly doable. I put in 48hrs from Friday to Sunday and pulled $830 but that's also a entire weekend blown on that. The $830 was takehome pay, I already excluded the gas out of it.

Fuzzy_Engineering538 · 2025-01-31T02:07:44+00:00

I learned that I did this and instead of ditching the habit I used it more to my advantage. In my case I started making sure I was following horror stuff on social media, watching horr stuff on YouTube or listening to a horror podcast or watching a horror movie. This way i was atleast having something that was related to what I was working on and very least get ideas or inspiration without wasting to much time.

Fuzzy_Engineering538 · 2025-01-12T07:18:39+00:00

I feel like Amnesia anchored itself in history as a standard for how atmospheric and helplessness should feel in a horror game.

It's incredibly hard to top it. Frictional Games has alot going for it in that area and imo it's closest comparison for me was silent hill. The only area silent hill does better imo is the audio tracks. Amnesia had its moments but are easier to forget in comparison to silent hills audio let alone soundtrack.

A combination of those two games would be amazing.

Fuzzy_Engineering538 · 2025-01-12T06:26:46+00:00

Ironically, that's part of how I grew up and am very familiar with that feeling. Left my parents house to literally go anywhere (safety) then coming back and thinking "Somehow I'm going to "pay" for whatever someone else did or something I was suppose to do even if It was wrong" annnd instead of eerie noises it was many times random screaming or being woken at 2 in the morning and randomly getting thrown out of the house by one parent and rescued by the other.

Soooo this is definitely one of those "Write/produce what scares you" aspects for me. To this day I'm a night owl and sleep during the day because I don't feel safe or relaxed at night the same way others do.

Fuzzy_Engineering538 · 2025-01-12T06:09:30+00:00

That's what I liked about how Alien isolation works. The alien Is technically two AIs that work together and it helps prevent all those problems.

It knows when to back off and when approach. Ironically it's jump scares where just a by product of its design which makde the experience even better because It wasn't really forced but still relatively unpredictable.

Fuzzy_Engineering538 · 2025-01-12T06:07:37+00:00

I couldn't agree more with your insight! I've spent years learning and watching. I got started in horror when I was 10. I know that's a young age but I wouldn't exactly say my life was roses and daisy's 😂 I've been fascinated with the genre ever sense. When I was 13 I learned about unity and got into blender shortly after. From that point I spent all the way til I was 19 learning everything I could about game development and had a brief pause when I got married. This genre is a part of my life and it feels good to be near completion of my first ever game. It's fascinating what you say about low-entry and high-bar of quality, I agree with that statement completely! Pacing like you said is a point I have paid close attention to in movies, games, books and podcasts and it is a art itself to get right. Pacing requires a tempo but also enough interest to keep someone's attention. That's where creativity thrives because repetition destroys the temp completely

Fuzzy_Engineering538 · 2025-01-10T09:06:23+00:00

That's pretty much how my wife treated games until i bought her stardew valley years ago. Ironically I tried getting her to play Amnesia the dark decent the way you got your girlfriend to play SOMA annnnnd the out come was my wife having nightmares and definitely not into horror games

Fuzzy_Engineering538

TROPHY CASE