[UE5] RAVENOUS | Overall Lighting
I'm very pleased to present "RAVENOUS" a UE5 student psychological horror game made in 6 months at ESMA GAME, for our second year of game art and design specialisation. This game is the result of a collaboration between 8 students, members of the Ravenous Team. Personnaly I was responsible for Game Design, Level Design, Narrative Design and Lighting. And this post is a part of my work on the game's lighting.
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For the lighting, the game uses stationary lighting, which taught me a lot about light bake and its constraints. During this project I did a lot of research and development to improve the overall rendering and the techniques used for lighting and optimization (Bake, light's settings, IES textures, subsurface scattering etc).
The game is out on Itch.io and I hope you enjoy the game !
https://ekoay.itch.io/ravenous
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Credits of the Ravenous Team (Environment Art)
- 3D Artists :
https://www.artstation.com/lea_chmielewski
https://www.artstation.com/kurawr
https://www.artstation.com/livyserroen9
https://www.artstation.com/alan_drg
https://www.artstation.com/max-emilien_allegre
Ravenous is a psychological horror game in which you play as Louis, a child trapped in a monster's basement. Explore the mysterious abode, solve puzzles to save your little sister and survive the psychological nightmare prepared for you.
For the overall lighting of the game in its corridors, I wanted to use warm colors to evoke childhood and cold blue for horror and death.
During our tests, we noticed that creating black shadow spots accentuated players' anxiety in the corridors.
For the nursery, we wanted a pinkish atmosphere to evoke childhood and the omnipresent cold, as the place is all about the death of children.
The Louis' bedroom deals with the impact of grief on a child, between innocence and guilt. That's why I wanted to mix the orange of childhood with the cold blue of death and horror.
The living room is about the destruction of the family, and I wanted to talk about it in a solemn, funeral-like atmosphere.
The parents' bedroom evokes more tragic events such as suicide, which is why I've further desaturated the orange of childhood.
For the way back, we wanted a more horrific and dramatic atmosphere in view of the events in the game. This is why I used red and very cold blue.
For the work and organization methodology, I started by blocking the exposure and adjusting my skylight before placing lights that I had organized in Blueprints and folders.
I looked at a wide range of film and video game references to find the lighting and colours that best suited the emotions we wanted to communicate and the game's environment. But the references presented here serve as a starting base for my work.