Product Owner - Out of Sight

Product Owner - Out of Sight

Out of Sight is a unique second person puzzle/stealth thriller developed in six weeks at Futuregames.

We had the requirements to make a game inspired by the quote: “We love the things we love for what they are”.

My contributions to the project:

GAME & UX DESIGN

• Core gameplay loop, Mechanics, Progression and onboarding.

PRODUCT OWNER

• Conveying the team vision and maintaining the GDD, Managing Jira backlog, Organizing playtests and feedback.

VISUAL SCRIPTING

• AI behavior, Level mechanics, Player character (partly).

Game Design

Out of Sight is a second person perspective experience where you play as a young blinded girl that has been kidnapped. You can’t see with your own eyes, but you have your teddy bear with you that grants you vision. By picking up, carrying and placing the teddy bear at different locations you gain new perspectives around the house.

As the girl with her teddy you need to solve the puzzles that will allow you to escape your kidnapper’s house. This eerie stealth game challenges you with a remarkable new camera mechanic that lets you control your character independently from their own point of view. Throughout the game, you will discover interesting new ways which you can use the teddy’s eyes to your advantage, as you try to avoid the kidnapper while finding a way out.

We wanted to camera mechanic to be the main focus of the gameplay experience, and for that to happen we needed several means of utilizing the mechanic in new and interesting ways. Since the mechanic was unfamiliar to most of our playtesters we realized that any other mechanics in the game needed to be quite simple, in order to not overwhelm the players with unfamiliarity as they tried to solve the puzzles.

Our AI (the kidnapper) was designed to be an ever present threat that would lurk around the house. We also wanted it to be an integral part to solving the mystery of how to escape the house. Therefore, we make sure the player needs to interact with, or manipulate, the kidnapper at key points during the game’s progression.

At first, we wanted the puzzles to be brain teasers, as in many traditional escape rooms. Creating puzzles that required a large cognitive load was however not in line with the vision of highlighting the main camera mechanic’s uniqueness. Solving difficult puzzles is even more challenging when there is a dangerous presence around in the form of the kidnapper. We therefore decided the keep our puzzles exploration based in order to let the teddy bear mechanic shine.

Progression

It was very important for us that placing and picking up the teddy bear did not become a tedious task for the player to perform. Instead, we wanted it to benefit the player by providing them with new advantageous perspectives. Therefore, we needed to invent new ways to use the mechanic in order for it not to feel repetitive. In addition to picking up/placing the teddy and the lift-up mechanic we introduce two other events where the camera viewpoint is the center of attraction.

The first camera event requires the player to place the teddy on a hook, that then moves along a rope. This changes the way the player have learned to use the camera mechanic, by providing an overview while the camera is moving. It lets the player progress in the level while not needing to return to the teddy point where they left their teddy bear. This lets both the camera and the player move independently.

In the other event the kidnapper takes the teddy bear and holds it for themselves. It then chases the player down the hall while holding the teddy in front of them. This becomes a true second person perspective experience, where the player is running away from their own eyes. It lets the player see their surrounding, themselves, and the distance between themselves and the impending danger.

UX Design

We knew from the start of this project that the look, sound and feel of both the characters and the environment would be essential to the user’s experience. It was those elements that would bring forth the creepy and unsettling elements of the game. I wanted to ensure that we worked towards a coherent game world, so I was communicating regularly will all members of the team to make sure we stayed true to that vision. We knew we had succeeded when some play testers were literally shaking in their chairs.

In order for us to allow the player to become immersed by the unsettling environment, the gameplay mechanics needed to be very smooth and easy to use. This included removing all unnecessary steps in the process of performing tasks, so everything can be executed with just one click. It also meant seamlessly changing the player’s movement and rotation to always face the camera’s forward direction.

We noticed during playtesting that a great amount of handholding was required to solve some puzzles. Instead of stating the objectives outright we give hints towards the solutions. As the player approaches key objects a UI pop-up will appear saying: “That vase looks fragile..” or “The elevator seems to be turned off..“. These interactables are highlighted when the player is close to them. With this intricate system we wanted the players to feel like they came up with the solutions themselves since we only hint at what to do, not how to do it.

Since the camera mechanic was unfamiliar to many play testers we put a lot of focus on the onboarding of the mechanic. We decided to gate the player by only being able to take the next step once they had completed their current one. By taking one thing at a time we were able to ensure that the player felt comfortable with picking up and placing the teddy bear before they progressed into the kitchen level where they would need to use the mechanic while also being under threat from the kidnapper.

We experimented with allowing the player to place the teddy anywhere but it was too difficult to control as the player’s didn’t know where to go or what to do. It became clear during playtesting that we needed set teddy points that give overview and also face towards the objectives. A core part of the user experience is exploring the rooms to find where you can place your teddy bear. Such an important gameplay element needed to be easily recognizable with a clear VFX at range, and for extra clarity we also added a highlighted teddy silhouette when the player gets close to it.

Narrative

The environment tells the story of other children being in the house before you, with backpacks, drawings, clothes and toys scattered across the basement. It also tells the story that the kidnapper is butchering something in his basement, which is confirmed in the kitchen where there is more equipment such as meat grinders. Several hints to the events occurring in the house exist, from the grocery list on the fridge to other children hiding around the house.

Product Owner

As the product owner of this game I contributed greatly to the core idea, which was then expanded upon by the whole team in several brainstorm sessions, that were eventually decided upon by majority vote. I was then tasked with spearheading the designer squad as we ironed out the mechanics, levels and overall progression of the game. Out of Sight was a collective effort that was mapped out using Miro.

Since we decided not to play it safe and explore an unknown mechanic (the 2nd person perspective) it meant we needed to playtest the game a lot. I was tasked with organizing many of the playtests and gathered feedback from every single one. This large collection of notes resulted from friends, mentors and industry professionals playtesting all stages of our game. I then analyzed the feedback and evaluated what was beneficial and what was excessive.

Communication and organization were fundamental in this project. I wrote and updated the GDD, and held morning and end-of-day meetings every day to make sure everyone knew what had been done and what needed to be done going forwards. I participated in scrum and documented the meetings with a protocol so everyone could stay up to date. It was also my responsibility to keep track of the Jira backlog, where I added bug tickets from my daily personal playtest.

Player Response

When releasing the game on itch.io we were incredibly surprised with the reception of it. After only one day it was featured as one of the top games on the website with close to 1000 downloads. It really took off by itself without any marketing!

Many YouTube creators made “Let’s Play” videos that generated over 100 000 views of the game on the first day alone. The game also started being reviewed and recommended in Taiwanese, Korean and English articles.

“[…] the visual design is excellent and the core second person perspective mechanics are used in some very creative ways. It’s got some great ideas and it would be great to see it expanded on in the future.” – Free Game Planet (2022-03-09).

Link to play the game: https://patetfisk.itch.io/out-of-sight

The game has been received so well by players all over world, with wonderful comments being sent to the team on YouTube, itch.io, LinkedIn and more!

Closing Thoughts

What a project this was. I am so incredibly proud of what I and the team were able to accomplish due to a simple and very important cause. Everything we did in the game we did for a reason, from the placements of every single teddy point to the AI’s field of view or even the player’s height in relation to the furniture. I am happy that we took a risk and created a game around a mechanic that we hadn’t seen before. Finding entertaining ways to use it was my greatest design challenge yet, but the feedback we received from players made it so worth it.

Thank you for taking time to read this submission of Out of Sight, I really hope you enjoyed it!