Static Paradox blog post #3 - Third Area done

 This has a bit of info, but I'll try to not go into too much detail about certain things for the cutscenes.

First cutscenes

Cutscenes are randomized with this selection.

This is mostly a reference to Drowned God for the talking cutscenes, with a computer with a mask on the screen. One will have face up, being more helpful. Face down will be more aggressive. They both have different themes.

The talking varies from someone saying not to go further, as there is no hope on the outside. Others mock the player. Others will say they were trying to find the fountain of youth, since the myth appeared due to the Osiris myth with his death making certain waters give his eternal life. 

Then there is the more surreal which changes the environment into something like everything being made out of TVs.

These mostly give a break to the action before applying tension again.

Third Area

This is a much bigger area, all enemies from all variations are in this area and there are multiple puzzles and each puzzle is a way to escape. But the next cutscene will be determined by what puzzle they complete. There are a bunch of walls that will appear and disappear randomly, making it a fully unknown labyrinth. 

The simplest ones are on a timer, where you have to reach an area before a certain time to enter. Or the door to it enters and closes randomly. 

Some is like the pervious area, with finding a gun and using it to shoot a lever to open a door.

Some requires keys to find and open.

Some requires finding a keycard to enter a "staff only" room.

There are 7 puzzles in total and there are 7 cutscenes.

Second cutscenes

These are tied to what puzzle is completed. 

Staff room leads to a room where an alarm message is playing, saying the initiative is a failure due to "things" they found, and they will place a defense system so nothing but humans can escape.

Some leads to conversations with people in the outside, saying they don't want you to come out since it "opens the door for others." Others will praise you to leave. One is a military general, talking about further talks on the outside.

The surreal cutscenes include running away with needing to always open doors, with something waiting for the player on the outside, waiting and mocking them. One is a "cabin in the woods" references with all of the enemies in cages, waiting to be free.  Another has one of the walls coming alive trying to chance the player down.

Lore/mythology

The game uses a lot of the Osiris myth and the idea of the  the fountain of youth. A lot is put up for interpretation for what the monsters are (are they part of the defense system, or the monsters why they defense system exists), what is going on on the outside (Who the people trying to talk to the player are, and why they say what they do) along with the environment itself (could be an experimental thing for human implementation, but could also be a TV set, or all the perception of the player). Then there is the secrets, if they are of the player's memories or someone else. There is a lot to make the game seem more like a paradox to confuse the player, but also to make the player interpret the game for themselves. It's why there is going to be very different endings instead of one single one.

Anything else?

One more area that is very condensed, then a cutscene, then the endings. After that I might add a secret enemy that has a very low chance to spawn for a secret ending. But this was always going to be a short game to learn how to make a single player horror to make tension. It shouldn't take too long to finish everything up, maybe a week at most before having to do stuff like the cover art/trailer/steam page. Hopefully the third area isn't too confusing for players. The main reason I'm not adding a lot of areas/locations, is due to enemies being able to send the player back to the start, so I have to inherently make it where it's not too hard where it forces a rage quit or loading a save when getting caught. It might be too much already, but hopefully it shouldn't be too bad due to how the first two areas are structured for the third area being bigger.