WhiteMoonRoom/README.md

TODO: correction, spellcheck, refinement

Project Current Status:

24 August, 2024: Idea emerged, writing it down

25 August, 2024: Project draft is being written (this document). The project has been created.

White moon room

A horror game inspired by The Exit 8, Portal, Temple of Light (A tutorial game built by Unreal Sensei), and creepypasta. Of couse, Meta elements are included (A tradition of GAS).

This is a 3D horror game inspired from "Rule based horror stories", examples are:

• Victoria's Hotel (EN/Reddit)
• Rules Horror Subreddit
• Tourist rules for the City Zoo (CN/nmbxd)
• Baichuang Apartment rules (CN/nmbxd)
• Rules in home (CN/nmbxd)
• Diary from grandmother
• Other examples (CN/nmbxd)

Project manager responsible for this project: QTØ <qtnull@nekoc.cc>

Due to Unreal Engine 5 experimental compatibility with Git (Git support is still in Beta as noted in the editor), with numerous binary files being pushed to the commit history. This project will not be pushed to GitHub out of fear of outrageous LFS costs. Instead it will be pushed to G.A.S. Gitea.

Commercial nature

This project is expected to be released on Itch.io with a price tag, or on Steam (provided if I can afford the submission price).

Development members

Member	E-Mail Address	Role
QTØ	qtnull@nekoc.cc	Project Responsible (Script, idea, programming)

This is gonna be a interesting challenge.

Roadmap

I have planned to finish this project in 4 years. But unforeseen difficulties are expected, QTØ and GAS are also relatively inexperienced in the development of 3D games and UE5 in general. So the absolute deadline is set 10 years from the project's creation.

The first two years are focused on learning, prototyping, and completing the actual script that can be used in the final project. The next two years will focus heavily on the music, visuals, voicing and polishing of the actual game. It is expected for this part to hit many many roadblocks.

Potential roadblocks for this project:

• Prototype not meeting market's demand, or the idea is not "good" enough
• Script might run into consistency or creativity issues, criticisms may not be well received
• AI Voicing may cause player to accuse suspicious activity (or being shut down by user's AntiVirus)
• No music producers, but AI tools and stock music are available

Deadline policy:

• Expected release: 5 years from now, once this deadline is met, the project must be in a state that it is ready for marketplace. This deadline is purely an expectation. It is not required for this deadline to be met at all.
• Absolute Deadline: 10 years from now, this is actually enforced, the game will be packaged for release no matter what state it is currently in. If it is still incomplete, the abandoning or releasing of this project will be decided by the collective of GAS via voting. If voting results in abandonment, all development assets may be open-sourced.

Script/scenario writing format

All scripts will be written in MarkDown format, directly in this document.

Program

For the actual program, Unreal Engine (latest:5.5) is used. Project language is set to English. Translations may be added in the future.

Minimum target

Full-fledged horror puzzle game. The project is created partly to learn UE5 game development.

Scenario

The player wakes up in a white room, similar to Portal's test chamber. But the entire playing field and furniture is purely white, similar to psychological torture "White Room". The only sound that the player may hear is the humming sound of light and the howling of air extractor's fan. And the noise from the test chamber or entertainment room.

The game notified the player that it has been elected as a "Test Subject", and will go on and perform tests for data collection for about 30 in-game days.

Game start

The player finds itself at an empty white room, with a automatic door in front. Player should walk through door. Accessing another empty room, then the door closes. The room begins to fill itself with furniture, bed. There is a desk, on top of which is a paper with rules. The player must interact with the paper, read what rules are on it, and then they may leave the chamber. After reading the rules, the chamber's door will be unlocked, and the player may walk to the lab.

The test house

The game revolves around the "Test House", in reality the player is in a testing facility, but to the player the structure will resemble a house, with white walls, floors and furnitures. Furnitures may have different colors to stimulate player's vision. The "Test House" is fitted with a bedroom, bathroom/toilet, a living room with basic furniture. Then there is a short hallway that connects the "Test House" to the test chambers, in which the player may perform "Experiments", or access entertainment chambers.

The test house is under the Hub-and-Spoke model. Where the central hub is the lab (which acts more like a information center), from the lab the player may access the house, the "test chambers" where player will conduct tests, and some other miscellaneous rooms where player can entertain themselves.

Everyday morning, the game will announce using a TTS voice: current day, next experiment to perform, and the time to perform experiments.

flowchart TD
    Bathroom[Bathroom] <--> House
    Bedroom[Bedroom] <--> House
    EatingRoom[Individual Eating Room] <--> House
    House(House) <--> |Hallway| Lab
    Lab{Lab}
    Lab <--> Chamber1[Test chambers]
    Lab <--> Chamber2[Entertainment Chambers]
    Lab <--> Chamber4[Library]

The rules

UE5 Widget will pop up, playing a presentation with the following information:

1. You have been elected as a test subject
2. You will live here for 30 days
3. You must perform tests accordingly
4. Test hours is from 11 AM to 2 PM
5. Do **not** use entertainment chambers when it's full moon.

In-game dialogue/text from presentation

Welcome to the White Room testing facility.

You have signed up as a test subject for Research & Development for the Metaverse Scope Resolution Ltd.

You are now officially part of the R&D program as a test subject.

You are currently in the Test House, we will be giving you a guide shortly by assigning you a guiding robot shortly after.

From now on, you will be living in this Test House for 30 days.

Starting from the next day, you will have to show up in the test chambers to perform/solve simple tasks or puzzle. Do not worry if you are unable to complete the actual task/puzzle, it will not affect you negatively.

You must perform the task according to the guides or instructions, you must also follow the rules while you complete your tasks, these rules are crucial for your safety.

The test chambers will be opened from 11 AM to 2 PM, you must complete the indicated task for the day within the time window. The clock and display on the wall will display the clock and task to complete. The display will not show any task outside the time window (11 AM to 2 PM). If the display shows tasks while outside the time window specified in this guide, do not enter the test chamber.

After completing the tasks, the entertainment chamber will unlock, you may use it for your leisure after completing the tasks for the day. Please do not enter the entertainment chamber when it is full moon.

You may use the Exit room(TM) or press the Options button(TM) at your discretion. Beware of the time warping that may occur while using these buttons, it is merely a side effect of the Test House and will not cause any harm. Both product has been tested rigorously and should not cause any safety problems. But we shall remind you under certain uncontrollable circumstances, undefined behaviour might occur. 

You may sleep from 8PM onwards, please get some sleep. We would advise you not to leave your bedroom after 10 PM. There is nothing outside.

The general rules should remain the same, but we may add in new rules in each day. We recommend you to check the rules each day for updates, these are crucial for your life safety.

The door is now opened, the guiding robot will now guide you for a tour in the Test House, Test Chambers and Entertainment Chambers.

Thank you for trusting our R&D process and our company. Thank you for your contribution.
Metaverse Scope Resolution, Ltd.

Types of experiments

All of the experiments will consist of simple, if not childish tests, like playing a toy, solving easy puzzles, or answering questions. The player will NOT be punished for not being able to complete any experiment to its highest level.

The game relies on psychological horror, and also relies on using subtle things that feel off to make the players fear. For example, one of the rules mentions "Test hours is from 11 AM to 2 PM", if the system calls the player to conduct experiments outside that block of time, the experiments will be subtly off, or horrific, depending on how many timed that the player has been called to do experiments outside the usual time.

TODO: Add more types of experiments

Simon

The player is presented with four ground pressure plates/buttons, with four different vibrant colors. Similar to the Simon toy, the player will have their short-term memory tested, the system lights up each pressure plate (or a screen will indicate what buttons/pressure plate to press), player must memorize the pattern, and repeat the pattern by pressing down buttons/pressure plates from memory.

The chamber will conduct tests with varying levels of difficulty, starting from easy (Level 1, with only 1 press) to hard (Level 10, with 10 presses).

Boolean logic gates

The player will be presented a broken boolean circuit with limited components, and the player should repair the circuit with the components provided.

Cut the cables

The player will be presented a box, where multiple cables with different colors, some of the cables are connected to an LED, some are disconnected. Player's objective is to cut off all the cables that has LED connected. Effectively extinguishing all LED lights.

Singing

The player will use their microphones to sing notes, the player should match their pitch to the sound that the game is currently emitting.

Math Quick Quiz

Player stands in front of a screen, where math quizes will be displayed, the questions will range from easy (simple arithmetic, or even boolean statements) to hard (Integration, differental equations, physics).

Whack-a-mole

The user must play a game of Whack-a-mole, with different levels of difficulty

Entertainment chambers

These are chambers which mimic elements from an amusement park, incorporating various attraction from it.

The player MUST NOT play them when it is full moon. The game will pull from a server for information such as moon phase and user location, and if it detects that the current moon phase is full moon, the entertainment chamber becomes a creepy version of it self.

TODO: Add more entertainment chambers, and figure out the puzzles for the escape room

Carousel

Ridable horses moving around a center point. The typical carousel at an amusement park. When a player is riding, it plays a soft, cute jingle.

The "Horses" are mostly white. We try to match the style of the housing as much as possible.

The horror version of it makes the horse's head a human head, and the cute jingle that plays is replaced with screaming and crying sounds.

Escape room

A room riddled with quiz in order for the player to escape. Features explorable elements and items. The escape room is not available at all times, there should be a 5 day delay between each Escape room session.

When it is full moon, the escape room is forcefully opened, and what it features is disturbing questions to the player, items that causes discomfort to the player (preferably if it features satanic element). In the end there is a knife, when it gets picked up, the player will be prompted to kill itself (the in-game character), there is a timeout clock, and the player must click rapidly in order to cancel that timeout in order to choose "No".

There is an item called "Escape Key" that should remind the player to press the "Esc key" on their keyboard in order to solve the Escape room. In order to escape, the player must grab the "Escape key" first.

If the player presses escape key when it's grabbing the knife, and the player presses the escape key (should bring up a pause menu), the pause menu will be replaced by a menu riddled with suicidal/depressive/violent/negative messages, in big red text, telling the player to kill itself (now, the message is directed to the player). If the player actually quits, it will attempt to cause a BSOD/Kernel Panic or crash the game.

Other horror elements, and Meta

The Meta element that the game uses are as follows:

• Usage of real-world data, like moon-phase
• The game may also take photo of the player using their webcam, preferably at creepy moments
• The audio provided by the player via the singing experiment may be used to train a TTS AI model to imitate player's voice
• Usage of mirror will activate player's webcam
• The light occasionally flickers, but when it flickers, it tries to spell out morse code SOS (...---...)