Grandma's Veil

Inspiration

We wanted to create a supernatural game that feels mysterious, emotional, and slightly creepy without relying on graphic horror. The idea began with a simple question: what would happen if a young person's spirit became separated from their body and their grandmother was the only person who knew how to bring them back?

This became Grandma's Veil, a story about family, secrets, and the boundary between the Human World and the Soul World.

What it does

Grandma's Veil is a short single-player survival and resource-management game.

During the day, the player explores different locations, completes small challenges, and gathers the resources needed for Grandma's ritual. At night, the familiar world transforms into the Soul World, where hostile spirits attack the ritual.

The player must decide whether to protect themselves or intercept ghosts before they damage the ritual.

How we built it

We designed the game around a simple core loop:

Explore → Gather → Prepare → Defend → Progress

The prototype focuses on four main locations: Grandma's house, a mysterious shop, a circus, and a forest. The ritual progresses through three magical stones and three lights, giving the player a clear objective throughout the experience.

The same locations change between day and night through lighting, fog, particles, altered props, and ghost activity.

Challenges we ran into

One of our biggest challenges was creating variety while keeping the game simple and readable. Daytime activities needed to feel different from nighttime combat while still contributing to the same overall objective.

We also wanted the game to feel supernatural without becoming overly dark or graphic, which influenced both the visual style and the enemy designs.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of creating a complete gameplay loop within a small prototype scope. The game combines exploration, resource collection, preparation, combat, and ritual defense into one connected experience.

We are also proud of the distinct ghost behaviors, where different enemies create different priorities during the night rather than simply acting as targets to defeat.

What we learned

We learned that a small number of well-defined mechanics can create a strong gameplay experience. Instead of building a large world with many systems, we focused on making the core loop clear, understandable, and engaging.

We also learned how changing the same environment between day and night can create a strong sense of progression without requiring many separate locations.

What's next for Grandma's Veil

We would like to expand the world beyond the prototype with more locations, ghost types, abilities, resources, and story reveals.

The biggest opportunity is to deepen the mystery surrounding Grandma and her connection to the Soul World, while giving the player more ways to prepare for and survive each night.

Our goal is to turn the prototype into a larger supernatural adventure while keeping its core identity: a spirit trying to find its way home.

Built With

• codex
• photoshop