University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Light at the End of the Tunnels: level design and its relationship to a spectrum of fear

(USC Thesis Other)

Light at the End of the Tunnels: level design and its relationship to a spectrum of fear

PDF

Download

Open document

Flip pages

Download a page range

Download transcript

Copy asset link

Request this asset

Transcript (if available)

Content

Fi g. 1. Mai n Menu f eat ur i ng t he camer a and t he
Ghoul i e Compendi um.
Fi g. 2. Tr ac k i nt er s ec t i on i n t he mi nes wi t h l i ght
s ens or s .

Fi g. 3. Fl y i ng Beedl e s war m.
Fi g. 4. Spac e Ev ader on t he r oof of t he t unnel s .
Fi g. 5. Zet a Beedl e Enc ount er ( Fl as h Of f ) .
Fi g. 6. Zet a Beedl e Enc ount er ( Fl as h On) .
L or em I ps um
Fi g. 7. The dar k t unnel s ( nor mal c y ) .
Fi g. 8. Wendi go Enc ount er ( Fl as h Of f ) .
Fi g. 9. Fl yi ng Beedl e enc ount er wi t h Mant i s
webbi ngs ( env i r onment al s t or y t el l i ng) .
Fi g. 10. Beedl es i n t hei r i dl e s t at e.
Fi g. 11. Fi nal Fant as y XI , Gus gen Mi nes ar ea.

Fi g. 12. Tr ac k s pl i t i n t he or i gi nal pr ot ot y pe.
Fi g. 13. Wendi go enc ount er wi t h t he c amer a f l as h on.

Fi g. 13. I nt er nal pl ay t es t c onduc t ed wi t h an adv i s er v i a
t he Zoom meet i ng s of t war e.

Abstract (if available)

Abstract Light at the End of the Tunnels is an interactive horror experience in development as a partial fulfillment requirement for the Master of Fine Arts degree in Interactive Media & Game Design at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. In an effort to make players feel as if they’re starring in their own horror film, this experience strikes a balance in its different types of horror by exploring three defined levels of fear (dread, horror, and terror) as well as an added level of “camp” through an environment covered in a veil of complete darkness. Largely in part to the overall level design of this environment, the game predominantly evokes feelings of dread and camp through its monsters and core player objectives while it also features moments of horror and terror through its horrific “gross-out” encounters and its design to be in the dark. With six different monsters (Ghoulies) to photograph and a lost coworker to locate, it’s up to the player to make it to the light at the very end of the tunnels in this digital dark ride.

Linked assets

University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Conceptually similar

PDF

Ascension: an analysis of game design for speech recognition system usage and spatialized audio for virtual reality

PDF

Fall from Grace: an experiment in understanding and challenging player beliefs through games

PDF

The Palimpsest project: producing a cultural shift to enable a systematic shift

PDF

Chaos

PDF

Penrose Station: an exploration of presence, immersion, player identity, and the unsilent protagonist

PDF

The Toymaker’s Bequest: a defense of narrative‐centric game design

PDF

Come with Me: a cooperative game focusing on player emotion

PDF

The Death Mask: a study in interactive mystery

PDF

Kinesthesia: a multi-sensory gesture driven playground of the future

PDF

BeachcomberVR: inspiring exploration: concepts in the production of a virtual reality game

PDF

Wetware: designing for a contemporary dilemma

PDF

The future of games and health: towards responsible interaction design

PDF

Morana: explore healing potential of virtual reality storytelling

PDF

There You Are: an exploration of storytelling methods using in video games

PDF

duOS

PDF

Palimpsest: shifting the culture of computing

PDF

Ascension: a look into context-dependent memory development in virtual worlds

PDF

Super Opera Squad

PDF

FRKN WKND and video game mixtapes: developing talent and experience through video game mixtapes

PDF

CODA: the making of a team reliant first person shooter game

Asset Metadata

Creator Duff, Karter (author)

Core Title Light at the End of the Tunnels: level design and its relationship to a spectrum of fear

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

School School of Cinematic Arts

Degree Master of Fine Arts

Degree Program Interactive Media

Publication Date 05/08/2020

Defense Date 04/16/2020

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Camp,dread,horror,level design,OAI-PMH Harvest,Terror,video game,virtual reality

Language English

Advisor Wixon, Dennis (committee chair), Fullerton, Tracy (committee member), Lemarchand, Richard (committee member)

Creator Email kduff@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c89-305196

Unique identifier UC11665395

Identifier etd-DuffKarter-8467.pdf (filename),usctheses-c89-305196 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-DuffKarter-8467.pdf

Dmrecord 305196

Document Type Thesis

Rights Duff, Karter

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA