My final update for the year, and it's a bittersweet moment. Here's what I've been up to these past several weeks:

1. Lighting
   1. Design -
      1. The Room, Office, and Classrooms - The thought behind the lighting of these rooms was to create a near-realistic environment of how I’d imagine a room with no windows and fluorescent lighting, except with harsher shadows and the slightest dim for an extra eerie effect.
         1. Playtesting results - Success! I didn’t need to change anything.
      2. The Halls and Lobby - I didn’t use a reference for these floor lights other than those old-timey scary movies where the lighting comes from below (you know the ones) so it was quite the fun challenge trying to figure out how exactly I wanted them to look. I first started with a similar color to the other rooms but with a bit of an orange hue. However, my playtester suggested a fun twist that I think turned out really awesome. After adding the VFX, I had to fiddle with the intensity and even the color of the VFX themselves to match. I’m kind of obsessed with the low-lighting both in physicality and intensity. I also added a few spotlights to look up at the statue in the Lobby, with the intention of making the ceiling look almost infinite.
      3. 1. Playtesting results - The first playtester didn’t have much to say about these lights other than the fact that the low lighting was cool. The second playtester, however, said that I should change the color to a light green and I thought, “Heck, why not?” And after trying out their suggestion, I was pleasantly surprised with how it looked and so were they. Lastly, I just fiddled with the intensity and angles of the spotlights to make that goal of an infinite ceiling achievable.
      4. The End - Okay, I LOVE this room. There was a lot of copy-paste, but seeing my playtesters' reactions to this sudden shift in scenery left me feeling all giddy. My intention with the lighting was to create a sense of mystery, leaving the player with more questions than answers, utilizing the machinery as the only sources of light. And it seems that I nailed it (not to brag or anything). 
         1. Playtesting results - I mean, what more can I say? 
2. Materials
   1. Design - My goal was to make this game semi-realistic and liminal - familiar yet uncanny and out of place. Most of the materials I found were on Fab and some, I went in and edited the color of the materials to better match the vibe. 
      1. Playtesting results - In all honesty, I didn’t think to playtest in this area
3. Audio
   1. Design - Again, my goal: spooky. And what I added: constant ambience, PC footsteps, Enemy footsteps, PC jump, PC dash, key jingle, and door unlocking/opening. For the ambience, I found two background noises and used Audacity to fiddle with them (such as lower the pitches) and edit them together to make a constant low hum. All other audio, I edited inside of Unreal. I then added random footstep audio that would play every time the PC takes a step whether walking or sneaking. I did the same for the Enemies when walking or running, except added a sound attenuation so you only hear them when they’re nearby. Lastly, for the interactables, the keys will jingle when collected and the doors will creak when opened.
      1. Playtesting results - Another area I didn’t think to playtest. I’m taking note to make sure I playtest everything I do for the next game.
4. VFX
   1. Design - This part was time consuming but probably one of my favorites to figure out. I followed two tutorials to create dust when the PC is jumping and dashing and also while both the PC and enemy are walking and running (Dust Footsteps tutorial & Jump Particle tutorial) and another tutorial for atmospheric dust (Atmospheric Dust tutorial) The goal was to signal to the player that they’re in a place that has long been forgotten, aside from the creatures that roam around. With the atmospheric dust, the enemies' lack of sight makes more sense. It will make the player feel less exposed, but will also make it more a bit more challenging to spot the enemies. For the walking and running VFX, I have the particle count, lifetime limit, and particle size pretty low, meanwhile I have the jumping/dashing VFX particle count, lifetime limit, and particle size a bit higher as if to create a bigger "impact".
      1. Playtesting Result: The main fix was the opacity of the atmospheric fog and changing the color of all of the dust VFX just slightly to match the lighting a bit better. After those fixes, the playtest was a success! 
5. Post-Processing
   1. Design - As stated before, I wanted this game to feel semi-realistic and liminal, almost like a lucid dream. I didn’t tweak much but here’s what I did do: the temperature is a bit more yellow to blend the colors of the world a more seamlessly, I turned up the exposure so the shadows aren’t entirely pitch black, and I turned chromatic aberration and film grain up just a hair so it feels just the slightest bit unnatural but no so much that it’s obvious. 
6. UI
   1. Design - For all of my UI, I used the same font (Roboto Light or Regular), the same color scheme (such as very light green for the light texts and a darker, more monotone green for the buttons on the Pause Menu), and a blurred effect on every widget.

I always say I’m not really one for horror games (aside from FNaF), so it’s a bit ironic that the first game that I made that I’m really proud of is very much horror-inspired. Who knows? Maybe it’s a skill that will help me in the future…

And with that, the game is complete (until the next time I decide to start fiddling with it again)!