crose52@protonmail.com
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Do you hear the embers whisper? (2023). Explore a dark, grim underground maze.
I made Do You Hear The Embers Whisper? over the 2023/24 summer as in independent project to learn more about Unity's lighting, VFX and shader systems.
I wanted to make an eerie, atmospheric experience, in which the player can explore a dimly lit maze. I knew the use of shaders, post-processing effects, particle effects and sound effects would contribute greatly to this goal so those areas were what I focused the most on.
I was able to gain more experience with some areas that I already had some degree of familiarity with such as programming a first-person controller, level design using Unity’s ProBuilder package, particle effects, and sound effects editing and reverb while also looking into some new things like Unity’s URP post-processing effects and lighting.
However, the main thing I wanted to focus on was shaders. I had a water shader that I had been slowly improving as I brought it to new projects, so it seemed perfect to integrate it into this one. I removed some of the features that would be excessive for the scale of the puddles, like foam and intersection detection. I then modified its speed, scale and colour to fit the environment.
I also needed some materials for the environment. I found some free ones online that almost fit the look I was going for, but not quite. So I thought I would see how well blending some together with a shader would look. This turned out to be incredibly successful and I was able to get materials that looked really good and fit the tone of the world. I even added some noise that decreased to allow the grim to climb the walls in random splotches.
Originally, I had thought about making this environment into a puzzle-exploration game but the break between uni semesters drew to an end so I decided to cull that to cut back on the scope and polish the project to a level I could be proud of. And I believe I’ve achieved that. Through this project, I’ve learned a lot about Unity’s lighting system and shaders and I’m very happy with the visuals and how the experience turned out.
You can play the game for yourself here.
