Synopsis
A system engineer who works for a mercenary intelligence organization awakes upon an empty station. Their coworkers are nowhere to be found, and every system appears to be in somewhat of a disarray.
Yet, even more of the strange lies in the dark depths of the unknown. An amorphous secret lurks on the flipside of reality, anticipating their approach.
A key inspiration: Samaritan's UI in Person of Interest. I find the black text, blinking red triangle, and the white background to be futuristic and visually gripping.
Is this how super intelligences communicate with us in the future?
Concept
"LUCIDA" is an interactive story experience developed in Unreal Engine 5. The full game is expected to feature 12 quests and 2 endings, and take approx. 4-6 hours to complete, but the first release will be primarily a level design demo showcasing the station's construction and various areas open to the player.
The inspiration behind this games ranges from the sci-fi CBS TV show Person of Interest (a personal favorite), Prey, and Alien: Isolation, to the very current, worldwide, ongoing persistent targeted threat of mercenary spyware (*ahem* Pegasus).
The game's name, "LUCIDA", is inspired by the phenomenon of eyeshine, or tapetum lucidum, which refers to carnivore animals' eyes turning brightly iridescent in the dark.
Architecture
Where does the story take place?
Canonically, the station is a fully sealed construction sunken to the bottom of the North Sea. The only way to board or depart from the station is via what is called the "Gateway", a teleportation device powered by quantum entanglement (yes, even during emergency).
Four levels are planned for the station layout: B1, 1F, 2F, and 3F.
The first floor has two sides, with the west wing being the Engineering and Administration departments, while the east wing houses the seven residential suites.
The second floor is home to the Operations department and the Ether Interface, which is a console allowing direct communication between Ether, the operational AI and any of the on-site staff.
The third level has the Gateway device and its control console, whereas the sub-level B1 has primarily life support facilities.
The first release will focus on floors 1, 2, and 3. B1 should come later.
The sunken-to-bottom-of-ocean idea came from SOMA, but I just thought it sounds cool.
(Image: OpenStreetMap, edited)
An earlier version of the facility design was based on hexagons instead of octagons, but in actual modeling this proved to be more problematic as modules were difficult to align.
Visual Identity
The main hues in this game combine the usual mix of black, off-white, and grey, with accent tones of burgundy (#800020) and what I call "fake grass" (#08A14E).
The fonts included in the game will include my personal favorite Inter for the user interface, with VT323 as a stylized accent font used sparingly.
This is mostly inspired by Alien: Isolation and its brilliant use of Helvetica and their proprietary typefaces.
For Chinese fonts, only Inter is replaced with Noto Sans Simplified/Traditional Chinese (思源黑体).
Q-SOL
The logo for the game and the fictional organization Sloane works for, Q Solutions GmbH or alternatively Q-SOL, is based on octagon outlines, lines forming pointing triangles, and a burgundy accent color. It has two themes:
Reach: inspired by concentric globes, Q-SOL logo's rings suggest the organization's global reach (see animated version);
Sense: like radar graphs, the pointing triangles in the core imply "searching", "scanning", and "detecting".
Q-SOL logo's design is my homage to the Samaritan in POI and a reference to the PRISM program.
User Interface
The user interface concept is heavily inspired by the aesthetic of Alien: Isolation, most notably in the use of green/red as well as the combination of Inter & VT323 for a sense of alienation and desolation. Much of the UI uses greyscale colors, which to be fair, lacks readability, but does fit the theme of the game.
Resources / Dev Tools / Credit
Game Engine: Unreal Engine 5
Modeling: Blender 3.3 + Cycles (Renderer)
Audio: Ableton Live 10 Suite
Video Editing: DaVinci Resolve 18
Concrete and Brushed Metal Procedural Textures: Julio Sillet (Patreon)
