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The end of the game

The aim is it to find every memory disk. Each floor hides one of it, in a total of 5 discs. The last floor should be the cellar, where Emilia finds an old childrens' dia projector toy. As soon as she puts the discs in, she will be abble to witness the murder again. A last fight against the true murderer will occur.

Death

Follow Fred is an Adventure, so you CAN'T die. If an enemy attacks Emilia or something else sets her into danger she faints after a certain time because of her fear. After that she will wake up in her bed in the childrens' room again. Nothing has to be done twice because everything is autosaved.

The rooms

The secret room is hidden in the walls of the foor. It can be opened with a certain bulb. But it is dangerous inside because it was enclosed for a long time..


The parents' room. This is where the murderer happened. Emilia will find a lot of clues when she solves the riddle inside the closet of this room.


The library. Emilia can change certain things in the library by causing rain or falling sand with the hour glass.


The labyrinth is hidden in the closet of the parents' room. Emilia can not enter it before solving a riddle, because a monster is living there.


The children room, this is the place where the tutorial is explained and Emilia encounters her first enemy and riddles.

Gamescom Presentation

We presented our game at the Games Academy booth at the Games Com 2009 in Cologne!
Thank you to everybody who came by and gave us feedback on the project.

The menu

We wanted to create a high amount of Immersion in our ingame menu. Although the game is paused during navigating through it, the player has the feeling of being still inside the game. The menus are located inside the ears and the mouth of the rabbit and the whole menu is created in flash.

The atmosphere

We created 6 rooms. Each has a specific atmosphere in colors, sounds and style.
















Each room contains special sinister riddles and interactive items that drive the story on.


























All in all we have a total of 93 assets, that were created in 3DS MAX by the art section. The style of the game is similar to Tim Burton's movies.

The cover

The flashlight

The flashlight is the main weapon. With the help of only the flashlight riddles can be solved and monsters can be scared off. The light cone has to hit an enemy for at least 2 seconds to make him collapse. The flashlight is configurable with different bulbs, which have unique abilities. They are key items to solve the riddles. The player can switch between the bulbs by pressing “Q”. A clicking sound gives feedback every time the bulbs are switched. The cone of the flashlight changes its color according to the active bulb.
The red light can show things that were hidden, and the blue light scares bigger enemies off, like the monster in the clostet.

Enemy mechanics

The enemies feel comfortable in the dark and are driven off by light. Once the light corona of the flashlight hits an enemy for 2 seconds he collapses back upon itself. After 10 seconds the enemy will wake up again and either returns to his initial position or continues to attack the player if he is still inside the alert radius.
As soon as Emilia enters a distinct radius around the enemy he is alerted and awakes to life, ready to follow and attack the player. Once Emilia runs out of this distance the enemy returns to his initial position and falls asleep again.
They cannot be defeated, so that the player always has to fear them to return. Enemies are always around invisible in the dark. This feeling is supported by sound effects that imitate footsteps or crackling and rustling sounds. The player always feels surrounded and threatened.
Once the player is hit by an enemy, he faints and awakes in the child’s room. This is a save and rest room. No monsters appear here, except the training monster in the playpen.

The ingame view

The Story

Emilia is travelling through the classical hero’s journey on her adventure. Everything begins with her being forced out of her ordinary world. Her parents are killed and she falls into a state of a traumatic shock. The next moment she finds herself in a strange and unfamiliar environment, the eerie manor the game takes place.
The first thing she encounters is the backpack. It functions both as a mentor and a shape shifter. Two archetypes are embodied in the ambivalent personalities of the toy rabbit. Moreover he is the one to explain the tutorial and teaching her the rules of the foreign world.
Emilia receives her call to adventure through a photograph lying on the floor (the herald). Hesitating and scared she picks it up and finds the first disc, the first hint of the murderous mystery. Investigating it closely, she is suddenly evocative with the blurred memory of the murder. Furthermore this is the final push that causes the change from hesitance to cross the threshold into the adventure.
Throughout her journey she encounters various tests in form of riddles and enemies. She has to figure out the true nature of her ally the rabbit while he changes from friend to foe frequently. The actual murder scene is her way into the innermost cave.
Proceeding in the story, Emilia will find hints and start to believe that she killed her parents, which leads to a great despair and loses her will to go on (the ordeal). But this state lasts just for a short period, because the last disk reveals the real murderer, the twin-sister. In addition to that Emilia has to encounter her bad Ego, the sister in a final battle. Passing this final test is the resurrection for Emilia from her despair; she became very grown up and was able to shake off her fear. The metaphorical kill and knowledge of the real murderer is Emilia’s elixir. She is now able to flee from the mansion, wake up and return to her real life, the ordinary world.

The sidekick Fred

Fred, that is how Emilia uses to call him, is alive in this dark parallel world. He can talk, but it is never clear if he really talks or it is just Emilia’s imagination because she feels so lonely. His function is the one of a mentor and a shape shifter.
On the one hand he explains to Emilia the rules of this new world and guides her with hints and advice; on the other hand he shifts from friend to foe from time to time. This ambiguous personality is displayed by two different fonts.
Another feature of Fred is that he carries around the inventory in his tummy and has the menu inside his ear. He is the interface between the game and the player.

The main character Emilia

Emilia is an ordinary girl with no special powers. She was torn out of her pamperes life after witnessing the murderer of her parents. Having seen this violent scene she fell into a shock state and can't talk anymore. The memory of the deed vanished and she remembers just blurred pieces. Her mind is imprisoned inside her imagination. Her only friend on her sinister journey is Fred, her backpack.

The first level

Our game takes place in an old mansion, that exists in Emilia's imagination. The geometry is shaped very threatening. The aim of the game is to escape fom the mansion by revealing the true murderer. Then Emilia will be able to wake up again.

The ingame view

We decided to choose a third person view. The camera is attached to the player's back and moveable around in between a certain angle.

The Engine

Follow Fred is the first student project using the Cryengine 2

Further Information:
It is a 3D Horror Adventure for the PC
The team created it during the second semester at the Games Academy Frankfurt Main
Our basic game concept:
In “Follow Fred” the player adapts the character of a little girl that has to solve the mystery about the death of her own parents. In the girl’s imagination, the player steers her around in her old house. A lot of riddles have to be solved while the player has to avoid different types of enemies with the help of a flash light, the only weapon to save him

The Team

The team consists of the following people

Game Design:
Christin Matt
Eva Maria Freund

Art:
John Patrick Deza
Michael Lückhof
Eric Eschrich
Anna Jacob
Andreas Menkhoff

Programming:
Domminique Mader
Arne Kleinophorst

The first concepts

Vision Statement

Help a little girl to solve a murderous mystery in an eerie mansion full of riddles, armed with nothing but a flashlight!