Dead Inside

This was my first team project - I (as a designer and project leader) and another designer, 1 programmer, and 3 artists developed this game on Unity with C#. This was our stepping stone in game development and team management work.

The idea of the game was to fit the brief of a game that portrays the university in a positive light. The premise of ‘Dead Inside’ has the university (GCU) under the attack of ‘zombified’ students, symbolizing the stereotype of how students act (sleep-deprived, slow, lazy, etc.). The game’s map displays a simplified version of the campus with the central point being the Govan Mbeki building, which is the point that the player needs to defend, hence referencing the university within the game.

The design of the characters is also based on stereotypes, e.g. emo, hipster, etc. The university’s buildings act as turrets, being placed in designated areas to defend the center of the map. The turret's art style for each building relates to the building and/or the history of the person it is named after, again directly referencing the university and educating people about the buildings to some extent.

The idea of the game is to promote and educate people about the university’s campus, for example, if the player places the turrets (university buildings) relative to how the campus is laid out in real life, the player earns bonuses such as improved range, speed, etc.