Signal 01 // Build Status
Where the build stands
A live read on each pillar. LOCKED = designed & done · SCAFFOLDED = code in, art/content pending · IN BUILD = actively being made · PLANNED = queued.
Hunter AI FSM, Dread/Fear/Evidence, 7-trap toolkit, flashlight-blind, headless test suite — all real in the base build.
"Prey, not predator" thesis, horror research, and the night-vision found-footage art bible are set.
4 cryptids designed with turnarounds + detail sheets. Modeling/rigging is the next step.
AudioDirector + hunter tells + mixer snapshots in code, with placeholder SFX. Needs a real sound-design pass.
Full-screen night-vision shader + reactive effect done (Built-in RP). URP migration unlocks the rest.
Procedural office/warehouse/mansion layouts exist as gray-box. Prop art + dread-beat templates to come.
Debug HUD today. Target: a camera-overlay (REC/timestamp, recording-confidence, feed-distortion).
Fake-Twitch-chat writer's pass done — ~350 event-reactive lines + gated "knows-too-much" beats.
Store page, Steamworks SDK, wishlists, demo — sequenced into Phases 3–5 below.
Signal 02 // The Roster
The cryptids
Four playable horrors, each tuned to a biome and a different flavor of dread. Concept turnarounds + detail sheets are locked; models are the Phase-1/2 build target.
Over-articulated, elongated arms with a reversed second elbow. Signature: twin retroreflective eyeshine that catches the IR before the body resolves.
A stillness-mimic that folds into office furniture and only moves when unobserved. Its tell is the absence of eyeshine where a creature's should glow.
A body made of feed corruption — scanline tears, datamosh, RGB split. It crashes the stream itself, making the medium part of the monster.
A near-human mimic that passes at a glance. The horror is the moment the mask slips — a smile a few centimeters too wide, eyes gone flat black.
Signal 03 // Roadmap
The road to Steam
Six phases from prototype to launch. Dates are deliberately left to team capacity rather than guessed — the sequence and exit criteria are the commitment.
Prove the loop, lock the vision, design the cast.
- Core loop & systems prototyped (hunter AI, Dread/Fear/Evidence, 7 traps, test suite).
- Design thesis locked ("prey, not predator") + horror-design research.
- Night-vision found-footage art bible defined.
- Cryptid roster designed — Longarms (lead) + Occupant, Static Hollow, Guest.
- Audio / night-vision / fake-chat scaffolded on a feature branch.
EXIT — an art-directed prototype with a locked creature. ✅ Reached.
One polished level, end-to-end, that genuinely scares a stranger.
- Migrate to URP; wire the night-vision post-stack + volumetric fog.
- Real sound-design pass over the placeholder audio; hunter tells live.
- Model → rig → animate Longarms; eyeshine shader; uncanny idle.
- One finished biome (Office): dread-beat rooms, prop art, lighting.
- Diegetic camera HUD; fake-chat live and event-paced.
EXIT — a 5–10 min slice that's trailer-able and makes people flinch.
All the cryptids, all the biomes, all the traps — for real.
- Model/rig the other 3 cryptids; per-cryptid abilities tied to Fear/Evidence/Dread.
- All 3 biomes with authored dread-beats + prop sets.
- 7 traps with art + audio + the Fear-vs-Evidence weighting rule.
- Multi-hunter, difficulty, menace-gauge pacing; full dynamic audio mix.
EXIT — feature-complete content; every cryptid & biome playable.
Everything in, plumbed to Steam.
- Meta layer: unlocks/progression, match modifiers, cosmetics.
- Settings, accessibility (flicker safety per WCAG), rebinding, controller.
- Steamworks SDK: achievements, cloud saves, rich presence, stats.
- Save/serialization.
EXIT — content-locked, systems-complete, Steam plumbing working.
Balance the asymmetry, harden the build, build the wishlist.
- Closed → open playtests; tune cryptid-vs-hunter balance.
- Performance/optimization; bug triage; QA on the test harness.
- Localization; a built-in streamer/capture mode (on-theme).
- Store page live; wishlist campaign; demo for Steam Next Fest.
EXIT — release candidate with wishlist momentum.
Ship it — and lean into the streamers it was built for.
- Launch trailer; press & creator keys (this game is made for streams).
- Early Access or 1.0 call; day-one patch ready.
- Post-launch cadence: new cryptids/biomes, community events.
EXIT — live on Steam. 🎯
Signal 04 // The World
Three biomes, one dread
Each level is a procedural interior seeded with authored dread-beats and shot through the hunter's night-vision feed. Its resident cryptid is somewhere in frame — usually before you notice.
Signal 05 // The Toolkit
Seven traps
The cryptid's whole offense. Dread is spent to place ambiguous, deniable scares (which build Fear) or loud, filmable ones (which raise Evidence risk) — that split is the strategy.
Signal 06 // The Pitch, In One Frame
Caught on camera
The whole game in a single beat: the cryptid, lunging into the ghost-hunter's night-vision lens. This is the feeling every system serves.
Signal 07 // Next Up
Immediate next steps
Take the locked turnaround into a rigged, animated in-engine model with the eyeshine shader.
Drop real SFX over the placeholders and stand up the night-vision post pass in one office level.
The one call that unblocks the volumetric fog and post-stack half the roadmap depends on.
Reserve the app, start the wishlist engine early — this game lives or dies on streamer reach.
Every decision answers one question: does it make the player feel more like prey being watched? If not, it's cut.