Underhazer
Underhazer is a single-player FPS adventure based on a cute-horror Y2K dreamcore art style. After her best friend Wisty’s suicide, 17-year-old Nyla and her Tamagotchi pet are pulled into Undergrid, a nightmarish realm where her repressed memories and emotions come to life. Players must take the Tamagotchi weapon and engage in combat with enemies to discover the mystery of Wisty’s death.
Game Genre
FPS Adventure
Platform
PC (Keyboard - Mouse)
Tool Used
Unreal 5, Spine, Maya, Blender, P4V, Photoshop, Procreate.
Roles
Chief Producer
System Designer​
Duration
September 2024 – May 2025
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Team Size
21 Regulars
3 Volunteers
Project Brief
Key Features
Transformable Tamagotchi Weapon
The weapon in Underhazer has two components: a head and a handle. The Tamagotchi screen-attached handle will always remain the same. The head is switchable by changing the electronic pet’s headdresses, which show different powers and gameplay.
Players must use the drops of nightmare enemies or the protagonist’s “essence” to generate “Candies” that can keep feeding the electronic pet to reload the weapon.
Maze Exploration
The level design in Underhazer is based on the maze idea to add challenges of way-finding to players. Enemies patrolling the maze require players to continuously focus on level exploration to survive, which will increase their engagement and immersion.
Narratively, the maze-like level structure expresses Nyla’s chaotic and complex mental state. There is also environmental storytelling, such as upside-down desks and dilapidated campus furnishings, to enrich players' understanding of the backstory of Wisty’s suicide.
Collecting to Get Truth
The main goal of Underhazer is to collect more memory fragments by exploring levels and eliminating enemies. Each level will have a fixed number of memory fragments hidden in specific level areas.
Each level’s boss room will lock until players collect all memory fragments to open it. Besides, all memory fragments collected by players during the game will be used to reveal the truth of Wisty’s death in the background story.
Design Pillars
Electronic Pet Partner
There will always be an electronic pet partner in the weapon that accompanies players in battle and the adventure in Undergrid. Players will interact with the pet by feeding candies, changing headdresses, and fighting together to increase bonds. The pet will give feedback to players by reloading and transforming the weapon.
Uncover ​Mystery
Underhazer will not directly or completely reveal the plot and all the truth about Wisty's suicide to the player. Instead, players should compose the complete story and truth based on their understanding by exploring levels to collect memory fragments and eliminate enemies/bosses.
Cute Vs. Horror
The art style of Underhazer will be a kind of horror created by the unnatural appearance of cute things in inappropriate scenes, coupled with the psychedelic dreamcore environment rendering, which we call cute-horror. This kind of incongruous visual impact will stimulate players' curiosity and desire to explore the unknown and uncertain.
Backstory
Nyla, a 17-year-old high school student, is investigating the suicide of her best friend, Wisty, who was being bullied. On her way to school, Nyla is pulled into Undergrid, a surreal realm reflecting her subconscious, where repressed memories and emotions manifest as monsters. With the help of a mysterious Tamagotchi-like weapon, Nyla uncovers unsettling truths about her involvement in the bullying. After she confronts her Shadow-self, the most powerful monster in the Undergrid, Nyla realizes her actions played a part in Wisty's death. Now, she must choose to stay in Undergrid and forget her involvement or return to reality and atone for her guilt.
Contribution
Producer
Project Management
As the Producer of Underhazer, I was responsible to map the game developing schedule and arrange tasks for team members. I updated each team member's tasks with detailed guidance on HanSoft weekly and contacted the responsible individuals for notification.
Besides, I need to macro control project file versions on P4V's cloud storage to ensure that no technical conflict happens.
Decision Making
For designs, my role as the Producer is providing design directions and making decisions. I marked the adjustment needs on team members' submissions and provided references to help them understand. Instead of being a "dictator," I always initiate votes or group discussions to reach a consensus for making final decisions.
System Designer
Visualized Game Goal
The Memory Board is a visualized process recording that shows the player’s overall Memory Fragment collecting state in the entire game. The board will start from a blank and gradually be filled by the player’s collected Memory Fragments and clues.
Weapon Design
The weapon in Underhazer is a modular gun that has two components: a head and a handle. The Tamagotchi screen-attached handle will always remain the same. The head is switchable by changing the electronic pet’s headdresses, which show different attack methods and gameplay.
Boss Fight
Arbitor is the final boss and a summary of all the mechanics in Underhazer's first level. His combat mechanics are mainly designed around long-range attacks and platform-jumping gameplay. We combined the enemy battle’s long-range FPS elements and the level design’s platforming elements to create a rich and comprehensive boss battle experience.