Calder Swiderski | Portfolio

Unforgotten is a first person non-linear narrative game that follows the story of two young children as they slowly begin to realize their lives may not be what they seem. They uncover a sinister plot by their boarding school that involves stolen identities and cloning.

Unforgotten was originally developed as a narrative pitch by a classmate for a “Writing for Games” class. It was later developed externally as a prototype pitch demo by the two of us.

Engineering

I led the engineering process for the prototype, including the various UI and interactive elements, the “time traveling” and the implementation of post-production elements such as textures and lighting.

I helped fix various minor bugs such as problems with UI interactions, issues with the character controller, and more.

Design

I took creative control over the lighting of each room as well as the lighting of the interactable objects. I thought about the best way to clue the player into what was interactable versus what wasn’t. I chose to place a dim spotlight on each object, drawing the player’s attention and letting them know that can interact with them.

I also took creative control over the texturing of the interior of the past building. I went through many trial and error sequences finding what would be the best material for the walls, ceiling, and floors. I took into account the time period, the lighting, and even the economic status of the fictional building in order to settle on what looked best.

Future

I will be continuing developing this project and adding more interactive elements to it. I want to play around with adding in a journal of sorts in the menu, so that the player can read the notes they’ve already read throughout the game. I also want to add elements where the player can change something in the past to affect the future.

All art assets were sourced from the internet.