Save Our Selves

Second Year Group Project

Save Our Selves is a project I worked on as part of a multidisciplinary group project. Being in a team of students from different disciplines allowed us to work in our preferred specialties, and practice the skills we had acquired in a semi-realistic game environment; building teamwork skills along the way.


[ Brief: To deepen your knowledge and understanding of ‘world’ and intellectual property development in an enterprise context. ]

Game Engine:

Unreal Engine 5.4.4

Role Played in Team:

Sole Programmer/Designer

Time Taken to Complete:

September 2024 - May 2025

Overview:

Save Our Selves is a survival horror game that explores the theme of dystopian futurism. The game is set in an underground government laboratory, and the player character, Casey Roberts, must escape the abandoned facility.


With the assistance of his AI companion known as CONRAD, Casey navigates offices and vent systems, slowly discovering the human experiments that the government is conducting. Casey isn't alone, though. A creature known only as The Listener roams the facility, wreaking havoc in its path.

Contributions:

I was the sole programmer for this project, and I also contributed to the design work. The mechanics I produced were as follows:

  • Player Movement

  • Triggered cutscene using sequencer

  • Item pickups and interactivity with UI integration

  • Distance-based door trigger

  • Vent interaction and animation

  • Sound-based AI enemy

  • Subtitles and dialogue boxes

  • Basic UI and functionality

  • Asset optimisation

  • Bug fixes and polish

Reflection

This was my first time using Unreal Engine, so creating this project served as a major learning experience with navigating the software. The game allowed me to explore a wide variety of mechanics and tackle challenges that came with them. The project improved my confidence in my ability to adapt to what is needed and produced polished work that I can be proud of.


The group feedback I received was extremely positive, with members saying that I was consistent, reliable and determined. Due to the team composition and being the sole programmer, I had to contribute significantly to the project as a whole, and even completed some additional design work, such as level design. Furthermore, I incorporated and polished all of the game's writing, as well as optimising the art assets.


I tested the game and fixed every single bug I encountered before the game was submitted, and the vast majority of players who tried the game post-submission encountered no bugs for their entire playthrough.


Final Grade:

[ Overall: 1st ] [ Personal: 1st ]


Watch the gameplay trailer here:

Access the itch.io page here