Hyakki Yako: OH&S

Initially developed as a University assignment in eight weeks, Hyakki Yako: Operational Health & Safety is the project in which I took up my first directorial role. I worked closely with a very talented artist, Morgen Bruijn, to develop the idea and gameplay for, and then create, a Slender-esque liminal space action-exploration game. You take on the role of young exorcist Renkai as he gathers the power of his exorcist co-workers and attempts to escape from an infinite purgatory, a party of demons hot on his tail.

We were provided a character controller by the university, which I heavily edited to add sprinting and a ranged magic mechanic. It was my first foray into AI Navigation, and the maze I designed was a perfect tester for developing my understanding. I also developed a system for playing Morgen's animatic cut-scenes, aided Morgen in the development of modular assets for a more efficient workflow, and developed an immersive portal system for skipping to the latter half of the game after the player's defeat.

Two years after we finished the project for university in 2021, I took it upon myself to release a far more in-depth, far more expanded version of the game on Steam in 2023 in anticipation for the release of its sequel, Hyakki Yako II: Purgatory Purge. I spent an additional two months adding new encounters, polishing and playtesting existing features and getting the game Steam-ready, and released it, for free, on August 1st, 2024 to positive reception.