Explore
Navigate interconnected levels and investigate unfamiliar environments.
Psychological Horror Design Study · 2022
Paranoia
Explore a crumbling mind trapped between death, acceptance and an eternity inside limbo.
Project Overview
Uncover the truth.
Accept the end.
Or remain in limbo.
Paranoia is an archived psychological-horror project exploring a mind deteriorating at the edge of death.
The player would progress through interconnected survival-horror environments while uncovering the truth behind their condition.
The intended conclusion offered a choice: accept the truth and move on or reject it and remain trapped within an endless limbo.
- My Role
-
Game Design,
Documentation and Prototyping - Engine
- Unity
- Prototype Platform
-
Windows
Consoles Planned - Team
- Solo Project
- Development
-
2022
Archived Prototype
Narrative Concept
The game world represented a dying mind attempting to understand and accept its own condition.
Environments, enemies and progression were intended to reflect fragmented memories and the player’s resistance to the truth.
Rather than presenting limbo as a single location, the project treated it as an interconnected series of distorted spaces built from the character’s deteriorating perception.
Intended Player Journey
Survive
Manage sanity and defend against threats using limited melee combat.
Uncover
Piece together the truth behind the character’s memories and condition.
Choose
Accept death and move on or reject reality and remain trapped in limbo.
Planned Systems
The design document outlined a larger survival-horror structure than the prototype ultimately reached.
First-Person Movement
Sanity and Health
Inventory Management
Melee Combat
Interconnected Levels
Narrative Choices
Design Documentation
Paranoia progressed further in documentation than it did in production.
Game Design Document
Core concept, player experience, mechanics and overall project direction.
System Planning
Intended relationships between inventory, sanity, combat and progression.
Data Sheets
Structured information and values prepared through development spreadsheets.
Feature Scope
A broad collection of required features, content and production needs.
Documentation was created across Google Docs and Google Sheets and remains part of the project archive.
Prototype Progress
An early Unity prototype established several foundational systems before production stopped.
Basic Traversal
Inventory Prototype
Early Sanity System
Development Archive
Early Prototype
Surviving footage from the experimental build. The prototype represents foundational development development rather than the complete planned experience.
Scope and Lessons
The project was archived when its scope exceeded my available production skills and resources.
Creating the planned models, animations, environments, combat and interconnected systems would have required substantially more experience than I had at the time.
Rather than continuing without a realistic path to completion, I used the project to identify gaps in my knowledge and the skills needed for future work.
Paranoia taught me to evaluate scope earlier, separate essential systems from optional ideas and use design documentation to prepare more effectively before production.
Archived Downloadable Prototype
An early Windows prototype remains publicly available through itch.io, while the design documentation and original development files have been preserved.