Inspiration
Anyone who has worked a night shift in IT knows that feeling. You're alone in the building, something breaks, and every noise sounds a bit too loud. I wanted to take that feeling and push it all the way into a horror game. What if the thing hunting you in the dark wasn't a bug in the system, but an actual dinosaur?
What it does
Island Nexus puts you in the shoes of an IT engineer working the night shift at a genetics facility. Things go wrong fast, and you have to survive three levels, each with a bigger threat:
Level 1: a triceratops
Level 2: a pack of raptors
Level 2: Car chase
Level 4: the T. rex
You move through the facility in third person view, trying to get your work done and stay alive until morning.
How we built it
It's built with Three.js and plain JavaScript, with no game engine and no build step, so it runs straight in the browser as a static site. A big focus was making the dinosaurs look realistic instead of blocky, since that's what makes the horror actually work.
Challenges we ran into
Getting realistic looking dinosaurs to run smoothly in a browser was the hardest part. Horror also depends a lot on lighting, sound and timing, so getting the tension right took a lot of testing.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
It's a full horror game running in a browser tab with no download. And the IT engineer angle gives it a story that people in tech instantly relate to.
What we learned
Atmosphere matters more than graphics. A dark hallway and the right sound can be scarier than any model. I also learned a lot about character animation and how to make enemies feel smart.
What's next for Island Nexus
More levels, better sound design to build the tension, and mobile controls so people can play it on their phones.
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