AFTEREFFECT

AFTEREFFECT is a horror/mystery visual novel developed, written, and programmed by myself released in 2020. It is a fan game set in the universe of Five Night’s at Freddy’s. In this game, players play as Vanessa Crowe, a fan interpretation of the Five Night’s at Freddy’s character “Vanessa”, trapped in a mysterious laboratory with her manager. The player slowly uncovers secrets of this laboratory, avoiding shadowy figures and hacking computer terminals along the way. It was developed in Unity Engine using a custom cutscene/dialogue system developed by myself that uses XML as a base.

AFTEREFFECT was created for a Game Jam in two months, and besides some light help from my game development partner, the game was entirely programmed, written, drawn, and designed by myself. When the game released for the Game Jam, it received very positive reception. Many notable YouTubers in the Five Nights at Freddy’s community played it, with the most popular video reaching 700k+ views. It ended up receiving second place in the Game Jam, only barely being beat out by our competitor.

The game was also fully localized in Russian with the help of a localizing team. This was my first experience in localizing a game, and it turned out amazing, receiving good reception from Russian fans.

AFTEREFFECT DX: Director’s Cut

An expansion to AFTEREFFECT was later released over a year later in 2021, titled AFTEREFFECT DX: Director’s Cut. The expansion received positive reception, with most labeling it as a worthwhile expansion that improved the game's story in many ways. Like the original, it was mainly developed by myself in Unity Engine with several tweaks done to the cutscene system.

This version of the game featured many new features, such as an extras menu for the player to look at concept art, a new ending branch with a whole new zone to explore, new hacking games that challenged the player even further, and most notably a Five Nights at Freddy’s styled office survival game.

Other QoL features were added, such as a proper options menu, accessibility options, the ability to use a new protagonist design, and many more minor tweaks to improve the experience from the original. The project took about a year to complete, due to it almost doubling the size of the game with its new ending.

VOCAL NIGHTMARE

VOCAL NIGHTMARE is a horror office survival game designed as a fan game to Five Nights at Freddy’s released in 2019. The game is mainly a parody of the popular virtual singer Hatsune Miku, as the game is centered around a very similar hologram woman that has gone rogue. As the player, it is your job to defend yourself in the office from this glitchy hologram monster. It was developed in Unity Engine.

This game was also released for a Game Jam. The game received positive reception, with those who played it found it to be a fun title with interesting mechanics and also finding it to be a unique take on the office survival gameplay.

The central concept of the game is monitoring the game’s antagonist, The Missing Rig. It features a very similar Camera system to a typical Five Nights at Freddy’s game but features another menu called the Control Panel. Managing all screens at once created an amount of tension unseen in other Five Nights at Freddy’s titles at the time.

DREAMSCAPE

DREAMSCAPE was developed as another Game Jam game, releasing before VOCAL NIGHTMARE in 2018. It was also made while I was still in high school. This game ended up receiving very good reviews from players, so much so that it ended up becoming the winning entry in the Game Jam. It was praised for its colorful visuals, interesting puzzles, and intriguing tone shift near the end.

The game has players solving various puzzles with a laser gun. The main mechanic is that the laser gun will reflect on specific pink triangles. It’s the player’s job to push and play with the environment to get the best configuration of triangles in order to solve the current puzzle and have the perfect laser chain.

Puzzles would slowly become more complex, adding new types of obstacles to the mix and putting the player in more difficult platforming challenges. The game ended in an exciting boss fight against “The Guardian”. The player was challenged to climb a large tower, challenging on the fly puzzle abilities as well as platforming ability.

INTO THE AETHER (Classic Version)

INTO THE AETHER (Classic) is my first video game, being developed as a joint effort between myself and my lifelong game development partner Paul Riggio. It is a turn-based RPG developed in RPG MAKER, developed as a passion project in high school as my first true game I have ever developed. While many mechanics were borrowed from typical RPG elements that are default from RPG MAKER, it does feature some notable game design decisions worth highlighting.

The most interesting part of the game was the combat system, using a timing-based system similar to games like Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi but also featuring elements similar to the rhythm game OSU. The player must properly time hit circles to deal more damage with attacks, which led to satisfying combat encounters and led players to be more engaged with turn-based combat.

The game featured a variety of RPG elements, a unique menu featuring a sketchbook and a phone, multiple challenging combat encounters, boss fights with unique minigames, and many more. The game would eventually be cancelled and later remade, with the work-in-progress game to be released as a “classic” version on Steam.

INTO THE AETHER (Remake)

INTO THE AETHER is a currently in-progress passion project being developed by myself and Paul Riggio. It is a remake of the canceled RPG MAKER version of the game with the same name, rebuilt with a new engine, new graphics, gameplay, mechanics, and writing. The game remains a very narrative-driven turn-based RPG game. It is being programmed by myself in Godot Engine.