Ratcliff Estate is a high-score-oriented survival stealth game with light horror elements. The player plays a gravedigger who needs money fast, so they decide to rob a cursed graveyard belonging to an abundantly rich family known for their unethical experiments. While they are robbing the graveyard a monstrous creature stalks them.

 

Gameplay​

The gameplay of Ratcliff Estate is all about getting as much money as possible while avoiding the monster hunting the player. The monster can find the player character one of two ways either by hearing the player move and by spotting the player. If the player is caught by the monster they get a game over. Their are multiple actions the player can take that make noise such as if they are running or if they are digging up a grave. Along with that if they bump into a screamer that will alert the monster to the player's location. The last thing that the player has to be worried about is as they pick up money the slower they get. To get past this they can bank their money in any of the exits. Along with that the player can leave through the exits to end the game and get their score tallied.

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​Team:

Ethan Vawter - Game Designer and Narrative Designer.

Carson Griffin - Producer, Product Owner, and Scrum Master.

Gus Goucher - Systems Programmer and Data Manager.

James McKibbin - UI and Gameplay Programmer.

Bea Godeaux - Environment Artist.

Renee Bamford - UI and Character Artist.

Jasmine Leong - Environment Artist.

Cooper Thronson - Systems Designer.

Nate Spielman - Game Designer.

Danni Vecchione - Sound Design.

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Production

 

This is a Unreal game that I made with a team during my third year at Champlain College.  

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My main jobs on this game was the narrative, UI implementation, ​and level design.​​

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The intent of this game was to make a high score oriented stealth survival game with horror elements that challenged the player and forced them to make changes to their strategy based on the mechanics given to them.

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The narrative of this game is not told directly to the player and instead told through the details in the level. I did still write up the narrative however as I made the graveyard belong to a rich family who did illegal and immoral experiments on the townspeople which was how the monster that patrols the grounds was made. I also made the members of the family very greedy which is why they get buried with their luxuries. Furthermore, since the thing they care about most is money the more money that person had the nicer gravestone and the better taken care of it was.​

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I was in charge of level design which I not only made sure the environmental narrative was in the game which consisted of ensuring that the nicer graves were better taken care of while the less expensive graves are decaying and being neglected. Along with that I had to make it work with the gameplay which meant I needed there to be a way for the player to escape from the monster at all times, with the exception being the highest level grave which I wanted there to be significant risk in attempting to rob. Along with that I wanted I had to make sure the monster had enough room to move around but also for the level to be cramped enough for the player to be able to outmaneuver the monster through certain parts. I did thins by ensuring both the player and the monster could get through all the main passageways but the player had extra small passages that only they can get through.

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The last main thing that I did was UI Implementation. I would make a series UI concepts where the team and I would then discuss which ones we like the best where the artists would make the assets. I would then take the assets and implement them into the game and give them the necessary functionality.