I have been working on a co-op horror game named Fogwalkers as a side project over the last few months. The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting where the world has been encased in a dangerous fog filled with monsters. Survivors in this world have set up camp in areas where the fog does not reach but must venture out to collect supplies which makes up the core of this game. Players group up into teams of 4 (number not solidified) and travel in an armoured bus through the fog to reach areas where the fog has temporarily dissipated.

Items:

Players then explore the map in search of items which come in two forms:

• Supplies: The main items players will be chasing. These items can be retrieved and brought back to the bus and contribute to the player’s scoring at the end of the game.
• Usable items: Items that are equipped to the player that grant players a bonus stats or capabilities for the session.

The following usable items have been designed but I intend to design more if variety is needed:

• Bladed Weapons: Weapons that do high direct HP damage and low or no stun.
• Blunt Weapons: Weapons that do low/no direct HP damage and high stun.
• Running Shoes: Allows the player to run at an increased speed.
• Flashlight: Allows the player to illuminate dark areas and scare off some enemies that dislike light.
• Backpack: Grants the player more inventory slots for supply items.

New players start the game with nothing and must search the map to acquire an usable item. These items effectively give a player a “role” on the team, for example, a blunt weapon user would be responsible for stunning enemies in the area to protect defenceless allies whereas a player using Running Shoes would take off into the map at a faster pace to scout for usable items and valuable supplies. After playing several matches, players would be able to cash in points granted at the end of matches to unlock a very weak version of a usable weapon, for example, a pocketknife, small backpack or a small flashlight, allowing them to start the game with a role in mind. This also acts as a form of progression as players can unlock many different starting options however, these will always be weaker than what is found out in the world so players will still need to search for better equipment.

While searching for supplies, enemies will gradually emerge from the fog and will actively hunt players. There are a wide variety of enemies, some of which are slow and weak, serving a role as a somewhat threatening but easily avoided hazard while other are extremely lethal and can even be a cause to evacuate a map early.

Enemies:

• Zombie: Slow, weak enemies.
  • Mainly a threat in enclosed areas to unarmed players or in groups.
• Mutant: Larger enemy that speeds up as it runs.
  • Very dangerous in a straight chase but it cannot easily turn so players can take advantage of corners and obstacles to escape.
• Puppeteer: A shade that is harder to see and slowly sneaks up on players.
  • If it reaches a player, it latches onto them and whispers commands to them, always starting with “Sssshh, don’t speak”. From here, it will whisper a series of commands such as “Move forward”, “Turn around”, “Jump” or “Drop your item” that the player must do, otherwise the Puppeteer snaps their neck. After successfully completing these commands, the Puppeteer congratulates the player and laughs before disappearing.
  • The lethality of the Puppeteer doesn’t just stem from doing the commands incorrectly. Instead, much of the danger of this enemy comes from doing the commands correctly and being forced to move into areas with other enemies so the player must risk disobeying the Puppeteer to avoid them or take hits from other enemies in the hopes the Puppeteer detaches.
  • The Puppeteer can be countered by shining a flashlight at it or hitting it with a weapon while it moves to a player or, if it has already attached to someone, then their team mates can knock the shade off them or shine a flashlight at them.
  • Teams will need to keep an eye out for their allies acting strangely as they will be unable to speak and will be performing seemingly random actions while fulfilling the requests of the Puppeteer. These can be telltale signs that the Puppeteer has grabbed one of your allies and they may need to be rescued.
• Stalkers: Fast, high damage and frail enemies that rely on stealth, mind-games and ambushes to take down players. Video of an early version of this enemy can be seen below.
  • This enemy crawls around the map and once it sees a player, it relentlessly stalks them.
  • It does not directly attack their target, instead they move between line-of-sight blockers in order to watch their target from afar and slowly get closer.
  • Players can counter Stalkers by watching them as they get closer to scare them off since if their hiding place is compromised, they will retreat and begin stalking again. However, if players charge the hiding place of a Stalker and get too close, they will instead lash out so unless the player is armed and ready and has allies, their best bet is to keep an eye on the Stalker from afar.

Stalker Enemy AI Footage:

End Game Events:

After a period of time if players have not left the map, the match enters an end phase where the map will become extremely hostile. This can take a few different forms, some that become gradually more dangerous over time giving players time to finish exploring the map and others that are so lethal that players need to immediately return to the bus and leave to survive. It’ll be up to players to decide how much longer they can afford to stay depending on the event. Below are just some examples of potential events:

• The fog gradually rolls in and is filled with enemies. If a player enters the fog, they are swarmed.
• An extremely lethal enemy enters the map with knowledge of where players are and an instant kill attack. It is slightly slower than a player’s base movement speed in the beginning but gradually speeds up.
• A lightning storm starts in the area, instantly killing players that are struck. Number of lighting strikes increases and interval between strikes decreases over time.
• The area begins to flood, slowing player movement speed as the water level rises. Once the water reaches a certain height, the bus will leave and players left behind will die.

When players are finished on the map, they can interact with the bus driver to have the bus start driving off. Alternatively, if too much time passes, the bus will drive off on its own. Players that are on the bus are completely safe from enemies and the fog while it drives away but players that are not on the bus have a last chance to run after the bus and get on before they are left behind. The intent is to create intense moments where players can chase after the bus through the fog while the enemies within attempt to swarm them, leading to some clutch escapes.

Combat:

This is a horror game at its core and as such, the player will not be able to pick up a weapon and start killing everything on the map. Instead, through team cooperation, players can use weapons to stun or kill some of the threats on the map but more lethal enemies will be extremely dangerous to engage unless players are extremely coordinated and have powerful usable items. Even then, there will be certain enemies that are impossible to fight and that players must run from

Where combat is concerned, there are two types of effects that weapons can inflict:

• Direct Damage: This deals damage directly to the enemy and once the enemy takes enough damage, they will die.
• Stun: Each weapon has a stun value associated with them which indicates how long an enemy will be stunned when hit by that weapon.

Generally speaking, cutting weapons will deal high direct health damage and a low duration/no stun whereas blunt weapons will stun enemies for longer durations but deal low damage. This means that in order to efficiently kill enemies on the map, two team mates will each need to take a weapon, one with high stun and one with high damage which would allow one to keep the enemy stunned while the other deals damage. There will also be weapons that would be considered hybrid, for example, a spiked baseball bat would do moderate damage and stun for a medium duration. Swinging weapons also uses stamina and if a player does not stop attacking, they’ll find themselves at the mercy of whatever they were fighting.

Early into the design, I had to decide if combat should be offered to players at all as introducing combat into a horror game often removes a lot of the tension that comes with being truly powerless. During this thought exercise, I identified several potential issues which I kept in mind when designing this system.

• If we offer combat to players, how do we maintain a horror atmosphere?
  • Whether or not the team finds strong weapons depends largely on luck so players will often not be equipped with the means to kill enemies. Players can eventually unlock starting gear however, these items are weak and are only fit to take on the weakest of enemies.
  • Enemies in this game can be extremely lethal and often a direct confrontation is not appropriate, even if the team is well equipped. Players that use weapons should view themselves as bodyguards that fight off weaker enemies that would otherwise interfere with the team’s search for supplies rather than a monster hunter.
• What is stopping players from just killing all of the enemies?
  • If players wish to efficiently kill enemies, a team will need to equip two players with weapons which removes two potentially useful roles from the team, such as a backpack user that can carry more loot, a runner to scout out locations, a flashlight user that can illuminate otherwise dark areas etc.
  • As previously mentioned, weapons may not always be available to players.
  • I predict that newer players would like the safety of permanently neutralising some threats but as players get better at the game, prioritising more efficient looting by avoiding enemies.
    • This would be similar to the approach of other survival-horror titles which provide players with the means to kill enemies but it is time-consuming and wastes resources to do so, meaning players are better off evading enemies and saving resources for bad situations they may end up in later.
  • Killing enemies is time-consuming, dangerous and doesn’t accomplish much in the end. Combat will feel intentionally weighty and clunky, possibly with the exception of some extremely rare and powerful weapons.
• If players can use weapons to stun enemies, what stops them from keeping enemies locked down permanently?
  • Enemies in this game have a Tenacity stat which effectively reduces the power of stun effects applied to them.
    • The calculation subtracts the enemy’s Tenacity stat against the stun duration of any incoming stun effect and sets that as the new stun duration. If the enemy’s Tenacity is greater than or equal to the stun duration, then the stun effect is entirely ignored.
    • This means that a player’s starting claw hammer might be enough to stun a small enemy but will be useless against larger creatures that may require a stronger blunt weapon like a Sledgehammer to apply a stun.