YOUR HEAD OR YOUR HEART?

The story of Project: Psychosis is a psychological survival-horror game where the player-character, inhabited by a mysterious entity, is seeking to understand the existential crisis that plagues humanity and grapple with the trauma of the inducing psychosis they're being subjected to.

The Pathway. The Entity. And You.

Link to Game Prototype Homepage

I am delighted to show you what I've been working on for the past four months. Project: Psychosis is an idea that I've wanted to explore ever since playing the incredible Alan Wake 2 video game. The idea revolves around human connection, decisions that are influenced by the head or the heart, and such decisions can eventually induce psychosis.

The trauma of psychosis is incredibly painful in of itself, but in the world I am crafting, the existential ramifications of collective pain and suffering of humans renders humanity hostage, unbeknownst to them, and one person to be the martyr to end it, unbeknownst to them as well. While I would love to go into great detail about the story, it is still likely to change and adapt.

What Have I Been Up To?

A lot of concepting and gathering ideas on how to tackle this mammoth project. Though it is just a game prototype, there is still a lot of work to do before you even enter game development. In the industry, this is called pre-production (or pre-prod). It wouldn't make sense and indeed would be incredibly foolish to go into production (or prod) with ideas and plans that haven't been validated or correctly set up. The biggest risk to any project is ineffective planning and scope creep.

Therefore, I will take as long as I need to make sure I know exactly how I plan to create this game prototype. Of course, things get in the way, life gets in the way, I won't be able to do something that I've planned and therefore I need to adapt, but those risks and assumptions will be understood, so won't come as a surprise. Without a further ado, presenting my concept stages!

My Overall Plan & Process, The Tools and Services Required to Manage the Project

I'll list below the overall plan I wish to follow and what tools/services I've identified that I may need. It's in no particular order. These lists are subject to change throughout the early stages of development.

The Plan and Process

To fully conceptualise the story of the entire game and cherry-pick a part of the story for the prototype.
To fully conceptualise the game mechanics and core gameplay loop of the entire game and cherry-pick them for the prototype.
To create a high concept document.
To establish a workflow for recording documentation, currently this will be on Atlassian Confluence.
To establish a work breakdown structure for the prototype, currently this will be on Atlassian Jira.
To establish a development workflow with access to collaboration for easy team onboarding.
To devise a list of assets required for the prototype and how to create them or source them.
To devise a list of tools and services for development.

Tools and Services

Unreal Engine 5 - the game engine used to create the prototype.
Unreal Engine Marketplace - free and paid tools for the game engine.
Atlassian Jira and Confluence - for task management, workflow, documentation and collaboration.
XMind ZEN - Mind map tool for idea generation and conceptualisation.
GitHub (or similar) - for repository storage, version control and collaboration.
Unannounced Digital Design Agency - to create game assets and lead on video editing.
Musician/Music Producer - to create at least one piece of music for the prototype.
Game Music and SFX Library - TBA
Others to be listed.

An Elaborate, Detailed Mind Map of The Story of Project: Psychosis

A mind map of the story for Project: Psychosis, created on XMind. The use of this tool is effective in jotting ideas down and expanding on them, with the ability to attach notes and summaries to each topic and subtopic.

How I've Conceptualised the Story

For the past four months, I have been conceptualising the story for the game prototype and beyond, as if it were a full title, as it would be easier to implement within a game prototype. So far, the major story synopsis is mostly complete. How the story is expected to flow is understood but yet fully conceptualised. The key themes are established and revolve around the human connection of the brain and the heart and how it influences decision-making and the ramifications of that.

The story isn't rooted in reality, nor should it be. I want to explore fantasy horror elements for the story but keep the message of the story somewhat grounded. The player-character is yet to be decided, but the main antagonists have been created.

Next Steps

There's still a lot of work to do here because there's a massive risk of the story having plot holes and simply not making sense for the player. Not just this, but how do you communicate your story to the player and how do you do so within a video game? This has to be fully understood before the game can go into development. With that said, I'm incredibly proud of the progress so far and I'm looking forward to expanding it further.

An Elaborate, Detailed Mind Map of The Game Mechanics and Core Gameplay Loop for Project: Psychosis

A mind map of the game mechanics and core gameplay loop for Project: Psychosis, created on XMind. The use of this tool is effective in jotting ideas down and expanding on them, with the ability to attach notes and summaries to each topic and subtopic.

Game Mechanics: What to Expect

To put it simply, the more game mechanics implemented into the game and implemented into the prototype, the exponential increase in complexity for dev time, resource and ability. Not just this, but the mechanics have to be synergetic for it to work within a core gameplay loop. If a core gameplay loop cannot be established, or has been established but isn't fun or challenging, then that's the fault of the game mechanics not being well thought out or badly created.

To not stifle creativity and innovation, I want to create game mechanics that I would love to implement in an ideal world, however, as this is a prototype, it just will not be possible to implement some of them because of the complexity. With this understood, choosing the mechanics to create the core gameplay loop will be challenging but ultimately within scope.

What's Next? When Can We Expect to Play This?

As with the story, there's still a lot of work to fully develop and establish the game mechanics and how exactly they'll work. If they aren't, the prototype will be set up for failure, so it's best to avoid this by completing this concept stage. I'll choose which mechanics will be implemented and the requirements for implementing them. I'll prioritise the tasks effectively and bring them all together when they're ready.

I want to finish pre-production in three to six months, therefore, aiming to start full development by September 2024. Production may take at least a year, so do not expect to see any gameplay in 2024. I'm also working on other things as outlined in THE PLAN, which takes my time and attention. This is the first of hopefully many updates to come!

Project: Psychosis - Update One

Related articles

Project: Psychosis - Update Four

Personal Progress: Update Three

Project: Pyschosis - Update Two, Part Two