1408 STUDIOS
Game portfolio
LOST MEDIA
PT 1 / 2
Lost Media:
Game Inspiration: Last Shift and Malum (Films)
Level Duration: 10-20 minutes
Lost Media is the second game I have personally designed and published in 2023.
Learning Objective:
One thing I wanted to demonstrate in this game was the horror and psychological elements that
both film inspirations gave. I wanted to demonstrate my technical abilities to create these
gameplays as I really enjoy creating this style of games. I felt that I was able to achieve this because I
used the films as a basis and a direct inspiration for how I wanted the game to be designed and
maintain the storyline.
I also wanted to demonstrate my pacing abilities in how I provided tension from the audio,
environment, and the emotional elements of the game. I felt that I was able to achieve this because I
took a focus on the layout of the level designs as this is an important factor in determining the flow
and pace of a gameplay. This included the placement of objects, obstacles, and enemies as well as
the layout of the environment itself.
Narrative:
You play as a rookie police officer who arrives at an apartment complex in the slums, America
after receiving a distressing 911 call. Unknowingly, this apartment complex houses the horrific
past of a cult and was you discover more about this cult, the past unravels into the present.
Research:
I really enjoyed the film’s Last Shift and the remake, Malum. Both films are very similar despite the
Last Shift being released in 2015 and Malum in 2023. Both the storyline and the fact that both films
are psychological, horror films gave me a lot of inspiration to create a game based off these films. In
a way, I wanted to be the main character, Jessica Loren and explore the feelings and actions that
they delivered in the films.
For anyone who is unsure what these two films are, they follow Jessica Loren, a rookie cop whose
assignment is to work the last shift at the old police station and oversee a hazmat team who are
disposing biohazardous evidence. As the night progresses, Jessica learns about the station’s sinister
history and alarming horrors start to haunt the place.
When I develop my own psychological thriller/ horror gameplays, I want to recreate the tension that
they create in their films for viewers in the games I produce. Reading the reviews and critics of these
films, I saw that viewers (potentially weirdly) enjoyed the sitting on the edge of their seats feelings
they got from the films, and I wanted to apply this same feeling into Lost Media.
I wanted the players to experience the game through the perspective of looking through a camera,
first person perspective. Outlast done this for their players and this is something that I wanted to
replicate for this game. I felt that this was fitting because I wanted to make the games an immersive
experience for players. Not only because I like that in games that I play but also because players can
develop an understanding of the character they play – they are inside the game and can visualize the
world they are playing in. I find that this is only achievable with a first-person perspective in
comparison to a third person perspective game because in the third person perspective, you
constantly see the character you play on the screen, and I feel that you can’t really then put yourself
in their shoes.
One thing that I did decide to do was ensure that the game did not replicate the film entirely. For
example, the film setting is based in a police station, but I wanted to change this to a home or
apartment complex because I felt that players were more likely to relate to a haunted building in
comparison to a haunted police station.
Design:
I created this game in Unity High Definition rendered pipeline and I included a volumetric lighting
system to render a volumetric fog. This volumetric fog allowed me to set the atmospheric and
emotional tone of the scene.
I designed the game as if the player was viewing the game through a handheld camera. I done this
because I enjoyed how the outlast games did a similar style whereby, they used a found footage
style i.e., as if they are being recorded from a first-person perspective.
I thought about using a 3 rd person perspective so you would have seen the protagonist from an “over
the shoulder shot” or “behind the back” perspective however I felt the timing and rigging of
designing a character would make the project less impactful in comparison to the tension and pacing
of using a first-person perspective that I ended up using for this game. I found it more impactful to
play the game as if looking through the character’s eyes and seeing the world from their perspective.
Even though the narrative was inspired by the films Malum and Last Shift, I designed the apartment
complex and the scenes you see below by myself, with my own creativity.