Joakim Lundström

STAIRS

STAIRS is a first-person atmospheric psychological horror game, inspired by real-life events. The game takes the players through the stories of three missing people as seen through the eyes of journalist Christopher Adams. Start preparing yourself now, for to descend down these steps is to descend into madness...

My Contribution

During my time in GreyLight Entertainment my main role for STAIRS was being Creative Lead. This meant that it was my vision that was to eventually be the finished product. It was up to me to make sure that my colleagues created the right assets and keep them updated to why they created them. The main objective as a creative lead was to make sure that the project was as transparent as possible, everyone needed to know where the project was, what their positions were and why they created the assets they were making.

I was also the Level Designer for this project. I made sure that we kept up with the different atmospheres on the various levels we had, balanced the horror segments with puzzles and other mechanics, kept the dramaturgic curve in mind for the story arches and when and where things should happen. I also scripted all events and wrote the various level design documents in order to make it easier for the rest of the team to know what to do next (and again, why they need to).

At the end of the project, pre- and post release, I also stepped in as the community manager on various platforms and forums. I was the one who answered peoples questions and kept in touch with various social media platforms as well as contacted media creators.

What I learned

STAIRS was my very first game that got published. So there are so many things I've learned along it's progression from start to a finished product. But below there are a few of the most important things I've taken from this experience.

• Team Communication: The most important thing I learned in this project was working together as a team and keeping the communication up to a good standard between the different team members.
• Level Design: Designing and creating a world with various themes and areas that have to be believable and logical within the games rules. With STAIRS I wanted to build up suspense and build an atmosphere to an area, rather than having sudden scenes of loud noises to scare the player. This introduction and it's balance can be seen in the first 15 minutes of the game. The part I'm most proud of.
• Scene building: Creating all the horror elements in STAIRS taught me a great deal about build-up and release. The audio queues, the dialogues, use of mechanics, and implementing subtle hints worked out well to introduce new pseudo-threats to the player.
• Pacing: Creating a balance of horror elements that tied together with both the games mechanics and story. The pacing of these elements created eerie suspense and put together an atmosphere many people thought was dreadful and terrifying.
• Modular Modeling: Working, using and teaching modular modeling. In the beginning of the project I had to teach some of our artists what modular modeling was. I also learned a lot of technical tricks during the project.