Forbidden

You play a college student who comes home at her parents’ request and learns she has inherited her grandmother’s house and land. When she arrives, her parents are nowhere to be found. A letter in the house describes the killings of an old woman, a middle-aged woman and a middle-aged man by someone unidentified, and she has to wonder whether that was her family. Searching further turns up a note about a local legend: a ghost that only exists in shadow, with a hook for a hand and bees pouring out of his chest. The goal is to find out what happened to the family and stop the Forbidden spirit from hurting anyone else.

I made it in Unreal Engine, doing the game design, level and environment design, character and enemy design (modelled in Blender), sound effects and music, and the enemy’s AI programming. The story concept and its development are my cousin Christian Rice’s.

The story is told through the house itself — the player learns what happened by reading what was left in it — so most of the work shown here is environment. The stills are the grounds at night and the interior rooms the investigation moves through, lit by warm practical lights against the dark.