Project Ice Terror horror prototype

Interactive horror prototype

Project Ice Terror

A group uni project set on a remote Antarctic bioweapons base, inspired by iconic franchises like The Thing and Resident Evil.

Animation rigging Blueprint scripting Set-piece design

About

Remote Antarctic horror

Made as a final-year university group project, Project Ice Terror is an interactive horror game about a protagonist trapped on a remote Antarctic base researching bioweapons. Something has gone terribly wrong, and the side effects become apparent through the short prototype.

Responsibilities included rigging and animation of the first person arm and items, scripting general logic, and concepting the setpieces. One dynamic event was built with the level designer so it always occurred at the third door opened.

Aspects worked on

Cinematics, tech, research, animation

Cinematic features

  • Used a mixture of Sequencer and Blueprints to script item animations.
  • Scripted first person animations via Anim Blueprint and Montages.
  • Storyboarded and planned key beats.

Tech features

  • Responsive UI that dynamically floats over interactable items.
  • Seamless transitions between player and animation camera.
  • Dynamic scenarios such as the cubicle scene.
  • Dynamic objective HUD that changes based on progress.

Research and development

  • Studied how games like F.E.A.R. set up and executed scares.
  • Researched IK, driven attributes, vector constraints, joint orientation, and rigging practice.
  • Learned anticipation, pose-based animation, and broader animation principles.
  • Used Game Anim by Jonathan Cooper as a learning resource.
  • Implemented Infrasounds in the cubicle scare to heighten tension.

Animation features

  • Manually rigged first person arms.
  • Used IK to make animation process quicker.
  • Used different rigs for player and sequences for better control.
  • Set up dynamic animations and tweaked Mixamo data to fit project needs.

Unused mechanics and sequences

Exploration that shaped the prototype

Escape sequence

Storyboard for unused escape sequence.

Animatic for unused escape sequence used temp music: Rising Pulse from A Quiet Place by Marco Beltrami.

The animatic stayed close to the initial storyboard. A blockout and Sequencer pass were built, but the idea was abandoned because of the complexity required for the level designer and 3D artist to make it fully operational.

Walk-in freezer sequence

Storyboard for unused sequence "Walk-in Freezer".

Animatic for unused sequence "Walk-in Freezer".

The original prototype layout was very different and aimed for an omnipresent stalking threat similar to the Alien in Alien: Isolation. AI issues caused the idea to be scrapped. Hypothermia also played a huge part in the early concept, with an ice overlay visible in the walkthrough.

A brief music snippet was composed for the walkthrough, inspired by Ennio Morricone's bass-led theme for The Thing.

Unused combat

First person combat was rapidly prototyped and roughly animated with Blueprint in a day. The finisher element felt promising, but combat contrasted too much with the intended hopeless fear.

Project media

Prototype, animatics, and storyboards

Escape sequence storyboard page one Escape sequence storyboard page two Escape sequence storyboard page three Escape sequence storyboard page four Walk-in freezer storyboard page one Walk-in freezer storyboard page two Walk-in freezer storyboard page three Walk-in freezer storyboard page four