'Pleasant Hotel': Update 5
The following is a complete breakdown of the work that has gone into the 'Pleasant Hotel' project:
1. Starting by the front doors of the 'Pleasant Hotel', a Player can immediately get a sense of age from the décor of the Hotel's Lobby. The choice of material for the walls and the antique looking ceiling lights speak of a Hotel mostly untouched by Modernity. One can almost smell the dust from here.
2. Stepping closer into the room, Players are presented with a Reception Desk, as well as the choices of going to the Left or to the Right.
4. The Left side of the Lobby branches into two paths that provide very different psychological impressions to a Player who experiences them. The Right-most path (pictured below), leads to a doorless aperture in the wall.
5. This aperture, which sits to the immediate Left of the Reception Desk, reveals a very long corridor. Despite being well lit, it is meant to make Players feel enclosed and vulnerable through eliciting fears of having nowhere to escape to and gives the impression that something could easily ambush them from one of the many doorways.
6. The Left path is no more comforting, as it leads to a short but dark hallway lit only by the dim glow from the windows. Fortunately, the gentle glow from the windowed double doors should provide a glimmer of hope to Players.
7. Cliché I know, but what horror scenario isn't made better by it being a dark and stormy night. Having previously used the Advanced Glass and GoodSky asset pack in my Rover project, I had opted to use them again for the Hotel, only I have also added in a row of trees and made the sky brighter so as to make them visible as silhouettes, which should help Players feel immersed and feeling that there is more to this world than the confines of the Hotel's interior. An escape. An outside world kept just out of reach.
8. The light streaming from the doors should lure Players with promises of comfort and safety.
9. This is an illusion however, as it leads to the Foyer. Based upon the California Lounge from 'The Shining' film (1980), it is designed to evoke feelings of being exposed and out of control, with the stairs and large chandeliers dominating the room and making Players feel small and powerless.
10. Deciding to turn Right from the Hotel's entrance reveals a tired-looking Parlour set beside the Reception, with a door at the end drawing a Player's attention to it thanks to the framing of columns and ceiling lights.
11. Half of the Parlour is as empty as the other side of the Lobby, indicating it as a place of circulation, but there is more seating here, suggesting this space is meant to be occupied, and its emptiness should lead a Player to feel uneasy and isolated.
12. The Parlour has been given more signs of life by inclusion of several new features, such as paintings as well as smaller details like magazines and other paraphernalia common to a space for waiting. Some things however, stand out for their being out of place... and of a different time even for a building so old.
13. More outdated than the rest of the Pleasant Hotel, this antiquated Wheelchair sits in a position meant to capture ones attention, drawing a Player's eye to the note beside it.
14. The note provides a sign of life so that the Players' isolation is made more apparent and gives them exposition for both why the Wheelchair is where it is as well as why they themselves are at the Hotel. It is also suggested in the note that something sinister is going on at the Hotel, which should help establish a sense of anticipation in Players that can be translated into anxiety and tension later with the right prompts. (Side Note: See if you can find all of the references in these notes and the Name Plates later).
14. The Parlour is otherwise not too interesting, but is certainly not empty, as Players will find I have provided surfaces with just enough knickknacks to feel authentic to life.
15. Suggesting more to this Hotel than meets the eye, a door leading deeper into its depths is currently inaccessible (as there isn't much beyond it), but it is given an in-game reason and allows for a jumping off point should the game be expanded later.
16. As the door to the Left in the Parlour is barred, the next logical step would be to investigate the door to the Right which leads to the Main Office.
17. Players interacting with this door by pressing 'E' without first investigating the note beside it would find it equally inaccessible, as it too is locked; However this door is different, as it tells them that a key exists that can unlock the door and where they can find it.
18. Reading the note by the door would also reveal this information, and also provide some more context as to how the Player/s ended up in this situation. Additionally, it introduces us to the Hotel's Manager, who seems both polite and very cryptic in his message.
19. Now most Players would now run to the Reception Desk if they hadn't already done so at the start, but should a Player choose to try and gain access to the Reception before going to the counter, they would be faced with this pitch-black opening, which may spark trepidation.
20. That is, unless the Player realises that they can toggle a torch on and off with 'F'. It is better to light the flashlight than fear the darkness. However, there is still that unnerving blind corner.
21. The darkness around this corner is unsettling, as it restricts visibility here to just the island of light from the wall lamp in a sea of blackness.
22. In a previous Blog Update, I mentioned how I integrated the torch to move slightly before the Player's head to give a sense of moving the light to where you are about to look, instead of it moving with you. This makes it more immersive from being more true to life.
23. Illuminated by the light of the lone wall lamp, the door into the Reception area also lets a Player know that it is locked and that they require the key on the desk out front.
24. Of course, on the Reception Desk, placed upon a book, sits a small gold key. Approaching it prompts the following message and the Player to approach it first has now obtained the key. The Name Plate at Reception reads "Wendy D, Pleasant Hotel Head Receptionist".
25. Shortly after approaching the Reception Desk, the Player will notice that as the message informing them that they have acquired the key disappears from their screen, the key also follows suit and disappears from the back of the book.
26. This occurs because the key is an Actor and I have set up a Collision Box to detect when a Player has got close enough to the key to pick it up, where in it is done automatically so as to prevent a Player having to spot it and needlessly backtrack.
27. Below is the Blueprint string I created for the key system. How it works is that when a Player shares the same space as the Collision Box, the game sets a variable that applies to the Player from this point on, telling the system that the Player now possesses the key. Simultaneously, a message prompt appears on the Player's screen thanks to a widget, letting them know they have acquired the key. This message remains on the Player's screen for exactly one second and when that time elapses, both the message prompt and the model for the key disappear as the message fading is the trigger for a command to destroy the key Actor.
28. Interacting with the Main Office door by pressing 'E' now no longer provides the Player with a message prompt telling them of the key.
29. Instead, the door now opens or closes on every press of 'E' the Player does in close proximity to the door from either side of it.
30. This is because it too uses a Box Collision, much like the key, only this one acts more like a metal detector in some ways.
32. Opening the door to the Main Office door reveals a small corridor leading to yet another door.
33. This door opens onto the Office proper; a small and poorly lit room that features some modern touches amongst the furnishings of the past.
34. Most of the room seems fairly normal, if old-fashioned.
35. This façade of normalcy is shattered by the clear evidence of someone having gone a little crazy.
36. Whilst providing evidence that the Hotel's Manager may not be quite as stable as implied by his first note, the corkboard also shows he knows more than he originally let on as to the Hotel's unconventional "residents". It also lets Players know what their objective is.
37. A small detail, but one can see that the desk Name Plate reads "S. E. King, Pleasant Hotel General Manager". Can you guess the reference yet?
38. Another secret of the Manager's is his revolver hidden behind a packet of paper, with a few bullets ready to be loaded. Eventually, the intention for this would be for it to have a mechanic in-game.
39. Now possessing the key to the Main Office, the Reception's door can also be opened.
40. This allows Players to see the interior of the Reception area, which I have assembled to seem a little untidy yet realistic. I have even left context clues to suggest the Receptionist gets bored and listens to music at her desk, as evidenced by the CDs, portable radio and sneaky hip flask under her desk. (Ignore the key still being on the desk as I forgot to pick it up before taking the picture).
41. Most importantly, it allows the Players to find their first note. Approaching the note prompts a message to appear on a Player's screen, telling them how to pick it up.
42. Upon interacting with the note, it will disappear, leaving the pins behind, and a counter will track how many notes the Players have collected out of the total number of notes.
43. The note system functions through the Blueprints below, being responsible for enabling the Players to interact with notes, keeping track of how many notes there are as well as how many have been picked up and displaying that information to the Players' screens along with removing notes upon a successful interaction from a Player.
44. In future iterations of the game, upon picking up the first note and leaving the Reception, a Player would notice that the Wheelchair now has a rather unsettling new feature; an occupant in the form of the first of many Ghosts the Players will encounter in the Hotel.
45. The Wheelchair Ghost will chase the Player and can go almost anywhere they can, with a few noticeable exceptions where it cannot reach the Player.
46. Having acquired the first note and having being introduced to the Ground Floor's resident spectre, the Players will now need to find the remaining seven notes, and fortunately, two can be found in the Foyer across its two floors.
47. The second note can be found on a small end table in the far corner of the room. Players will have to be careful as it would be very possible to get cornered by the Wheelchair Ghost.
48. The third note can be found up on the First Floor of the Foyer, which would branch off to several bedrooms used for later objectives in the final game. Of note is the fact that, in a twist of irony, because the Wheelchair Ghost is using the Wheelchair as a focal point for its haunting, it is tied to it and as such, cannot ascend any stairs. A way around this in the final game would be that the Wheelchair Ghost would either then switch targets to another Player on the Ground Floor or use a Lift in another part of the Hotel to escape the confines of the Ground Floor when it becomes accessible later in the game.
49. The third note can be found on a table beside a lamp on the Foyer's balcony beside a set of keys which would unlock bedroom doors on that floor later in the game.
50. An excellent Overlook (see what I did there?), the balcony provides a clear view of the Foyer and in this case, shows a frustrated Wheelchair Ghost lamenting not being able to reach the Player.
51. Heading through the door to the Right after entering the Foyer leads to another blind corner in a semi-lit corridor which then takes Players to the Hotel's Kitchen, which has had some reworks.
52. The Kitchen shows evidence of having been vacated in a hurry, with the walk-in fridge having been left open and a trolley having been left at an odd angle.
53. In the walk-in fridge is a variety of meats and cheeses, and I have opted to remove the fog effect that I had originally put into this room to make it easier for players to spot the fourth note. Also of note is the fact that, despite this room being a perfect room to corner a Player, I decided to make this room inaccessible for the Wheelchair Ghost to give Players a fair chance at retrieving the note in this room.
54. The fourth note is sat of a shelf in between the uncooked chickens, appearing quite out of place.
55. The lighting in the Kitchen has also had a rework, as I felt that before it illuminated the room too much before. I have since dialled back the luminosity to provoke a more oppressive feeling from the room. The only real light source in the first section of the L-shaped Kitchen is the sickly bluish-white light from the walk-in fridge, as the green glow from the various workstations lend a strange, unnatural feel to the room whilst not providing much useful light.
56. A slightly open freezer in the corner sheds just enough light to create an island of illumination at the corner, serving only to accentuate both the prominently placed knife wedged into a hunk of meat, as if it were a thinly-guised suggestion of violence, as well as the encompassing sea of darkness lying around the blind corner.
57. Around the corner, the Kitchen is cloaked in darkness, but the red light from some of the appliances suggests danger to a Player's subconscious and blends with the green light to create a jarring effect that will hopefully be subtly disconcerting. Additionally, a solitary light shines down on the far door, drawing the Players' eyes to the corridor beyond it.
58. Using their torch, Players can see that the darkness of the Kitchen was not used as an excuse to under-develop the room's environment, as a lot of effort has been undertaken to ensure the set-dressing is appropriate for the room's purpose and makes it feel suitably authentic. Further more, the ambient glow of the greens and reds over the crockery creates a weird feeling of something being not right.
59. Through the doorway at the end of the Kitchen is a corridor that looks like something out of the Backrooms, as I have edited the lighting to create an optical illusion of sorts, as the dim beige haze merges with the shadows to frame the back wall. I did this to make it seem as if it was a dead end, making Players feel uncomfortably trapped. Additionally, it furthers the sense of Liminality, lending an even greater sense of unease to the Players than the other, better lit corridor from earlier generated. Furthermore, the banding of the shadows effectively obscures the doorways along the corridor, making the threat of something lurking in one of them far more unsettling, creating a more powerful experience of anticipatory dread.
60. Making ones way down the corridor reveals that one of the doors is wide open.
61. Fortunately, there are no ghouls waiting to jump out at Players from this door way, only this dingy little Store Room that serves as the Caretaker's office. What is terrifying about this room is how easy it would be for a Player to be cornered by the Wheelchair Ghost is this room.
62. On a desk in the Store Room, not only is there a second pair of keys for the East Wing Bedrooms, meaning a second Player can unlock bedroom doors in later iterations of the game, but there is also an empty tool box. Players would have objectives to collect tools for specific purposes at various points in the game, and this would allow Players to store tools so they can find them later. Additionally, the final Name Plate in this room reads "Delbert Grady, Pleasant Hotel Caretaker".
63. The Players will also find the fifth note pinned to a wooden box sat on a shelf, which it is practically impossible to not see.
64. The sixth note is a little trickier to spot as it is sat on a chair in the Dining Room, but as the path through the tables and chairs is very linear, Players should be looking in its direction as they make their way through and it does stand out against the red material of the chair it rests upon.
65. Without missing a beat, the Wheelchair Ghost is quick to chase the Players through the Dining Rooms cluttered furnishings, determined to reach them despite the many obstacles.
66. The Wheelchair Ghost is able to effortlessly weave its way through the furniture due to the use of a Navigation Mesh. This way the Wheelchair Ghost can go nearly anywhere on the Ground Floor.
67. The scale and dimensions of the Dining Room was designed to work along with the environmental set-dressing decisions to create a space that was simultaneously large enough to trigger the anxiety of being exposed with nowhere to hide from one's pursuer, yet also be cluttered enough to be somewhat claustrophobic and cause tension from feeling as if one is hemmed in, with the threat of being caught due to limited means of escape.
68. From the Dining Room, the Players will find themselves back at the long Liminal corridor from earlier; the paths leading back to the Lobby and Reception to form a loop.
69. This corridor should be unsettling to Players as it appears somewhat ominous and "off" as, being a Liminal Space, it creates a strange sense of uncanniness and a feeling of being in a dream through its use of architecture and the fact that it is a place of transition one wouldn't normally linger in; its emptiness making it seem unnatural, further adding to the vulnerability a Player may experience from dwelling within it for too long.
70. At the end of the corridor, players can find the seventh note. There is actually a small radius of detection in the doorway, so should a Player go this direction, the prompt to interact may appear and alert them of the note's presence nearby.
71. The eighth and final note, which is found on the front doors at the entrance of the Hotel, would only appear at the end of the Demo after the Player/s have collected the other seven notes.
72. Here we can see the note pinned between both of the doors, below the glowing fire escape sign.
73. Finally, the Demo would be made to end upon the Player/s obtaining the final note, but for now, it just grants the Wheelchair Ghost an opportunity to bid us a proper farewell.
That is the 'Pleasant Hotel' so far. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I have been enjoying creating it. Over time, I hope to expand the Hotel and implement more ghosts and mechanics, so keep an eye on this blog. By the way, did you get the references on the notes and Name Plates?
It was of course all references to Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining' film (1980), based upon the book of the same name by author Stephen E. King. Where you able to identify them all?
- Tim
