The 5th Horseman: Final Report 1

The 5th Horseman Final Report

Brett Hansen, Stephanie Gan, Randall Rood

California State University Monterey Bay

CST 499, Directed Group Capstone

Dr. Krzysztof Pietroszek

May 18, 2017

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Executive Summary

The 5th Horseman is a 1st-person puzzle game with horror elements that was built using

the Unreal Engine & C++ scripting. Our development team made a quirky game that puts classic

puzzles into a fun new setting. It was designed as both an exercise in learning the ins and outs of

a complex development environment and an exploration of game development. The design of

the game called for a varied set of techniques to develop each individual level. The pestilence

maze called for a constant damaging effect & a running elevator which meant bound trigger

boxes & objects that would transform on certain events. The war puzzle called for compound

logic implemented amongst 25 separate platforms. The famine puzzle, which was a simplified

implementation of The Towers of Hanoi. These all required very different approaches to level

design and development. This variety meant that we were able to experience a lot of what a game

engine can offer within the structure of the capstone course. That is not to say that things went

smoothly. The game underwent several reductions in scope as the project took shape over the

course of the capstone class.

The independent gaming market is only growing & part of what makes the culture so

vibrant and vivid is that developers are constantly putting out strange and unique games. These

games dont have the polish or budget of a AAA studio; but they also go to a place of artistic

integrity & questionable profitability that major developers wouldnt dare explore. It is vital that

developers continue to make these sorts of quirky games to retain that cherished and fun

character that the industry has made for itself. This game is our humble way of joining the fray

and making something that we would like to play.

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Table of Contents
Introduction / Discussion 4
Project Name and Description 4
Problem/Issue in Technology 4
Solution to the Problem/Issue in Technology 5
Project Goals and Objectives 6
Community and Stakeholders 8
Need for Project 9
Feasibility of Project 9
Design Requirements 12
Functional Decomposition of the Project 12
Selection of Design Criterion 12
Final Deliverables 13
Approach and Methodology 13
Legal Considerations 14
Ethical Considerations 15
Timeline and Budget 16
Usability Testing and Evaluation 17
Final Implementations 19
Conclusions 22
References 24
Appendix 26
Appendix A 26
Appendix B 27
The 5th Horseman: Final Report 4

Introduction / Discussion

Project Name and Description

Games have come a long way from Pong. What started out as small gadgets and

diversions have evolved into complex entities that push the limits of computer hardware and tell

compelling stories. For our capstone project, we have decided to tell such a story. The 5th

Horseman is a 1st person, three-dimensional puzzle game with a horror theme. There will be

little to no combat in the game as the player is meant to feel helpless against the powerful forces

around them. Only their wits will get them out alive and sane. The story draws much

thematically from the New Testament book of revelations. The player is charged with waking the

four horsemen of the apocalypse in order to gain the freedom to escape a dungeon they find

themselves in.

The project we are completing does not have a specific client. The client in the game

industry is the consumer that ends up buying the game. This makes the client aspect interesting

because we do not build it around the client at first. Once we have a beta, we would release the

game and based on the feedback manipulate the game to be better. This process will be used in

week 7 of the class, when we will release a playable game with basic functions and logic for

testing and evaluation by a random set of individuals.

Problem/Issue in Technology

The project that is being developed is not something that directly targets a single issue or

problem in society. Rather, it is contributing to the community of independent game developers.

The game industry is creating more intriguing ideas every year. Technology is getting more

advanced and the games that are being created are more complex than ever. Paradoxically, while
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games are growing more complicated and more expensive every year, the availability of

middleware and tools has led to an explosion of low-budget, independent developers. The 5th

Horseman fits into this niche of independent games that pursue non-traditional gameplay and

unique experiences. The largest known survival horror game is the Resident Evil series. Our

game is targeted at the same genre with a bit of puzzle in it as well. The idea is to create a game

that has a unique feel to it. This is accomplished by making a good storyline mixed with intuitive

gameplay and satisfying challenges that rely more on understanding the rules of a puzzle than on

reflexes and split-second timing. The incredible refinement and proliferation of game engines

and other critical development middleware mean that the bar to entry for game development is

tumbling down year over year. This, along with the desire to have creative control, is leading to a

rise in independent game firms creating leading edge video games (Parker, 2011). Our game is

our humble attempt to add to this culture and promote a larger pool of independent developers.

Solution to the Problem/Issue in Technology

Since this is not a direct issue the solution is more geared towards adding to the

ecosystem of independent game development and how the game is in a specific niche. The niche

that we are going for is the first person puzzle game with a horror ambiance. When it comes to

games, standing out is very important if you want to make an impact on the community. What

sets our game apart from others is the eschatology that few games incorporate. Of these few

games, no game plays with the symbols of the Christian Revelation in the context of a puzzle

game. We also dont focus on one type of puzzle like most games do. Several released games

have overarching puzzles that get slightly more complex as the game proceeds. The 5th

Horseman has four unique puzzles each attune to the type of horse it is representing and makes

the player think more about what they must do to continue on.
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For a further explanation and better understanding of the concept; the game is a series of

five rooms arranged in a pentagon around a central room, which wont be in the beta version.

The game begins in a vault like stone room that will give you some lore. The first room is the

Horseman of Pestilences domain. The puzzle in this area is a maze where you must avoid a

pursuer; in the beta version this has been supplanted by a fog that deals damage constantly due to

time constraints. The second room is the Horseman of Wars Domain. The puzzle here is a five

by five platform system made with two simple rules: the first time you step on a panel the light

will go out, the second time you step on it you will fall through and all panels must be dark for

the way out to open up. The third domain is ruled by the Famine Horseman. This puzzle is a

streamlined version of the towers of Hanoi. Essentially, a player must use the controls to move 3

boxes from one side of a room to the other without breaking the boxes and while only carrying

one box at a time. The last room is Deaths domain, where you must learn how to keep a sheep

alive while crossing a river. Once all four rooms are completed you find yourself back in the

starting room and you can walk through to end the game. The concepts keep close correlation to

the story of the 5th Horsemen and each Horseman will be personified in the room. It should be

noted that due to time constraints, Death has been replaced with a choice: ascend a lit staircase

and awaken as if none of this ever happened, or sacrifice your mortal life to awaken Death and

join the horsemen as their leader, the eponymous 5th Horseman

Project Goals and Objectives

For the 5th Horseman project we interpret goals as a set of achievable targets we as

developers hope to learn or gain from the capstone project. The objectives are interpreted as

achievable targets that the game itself will have to meet. For our goals, we are using Unreal

Engine 4 to create the playable game. Unreal Engine 4 has plenty of self-containing features but
The 5th Horseman: Final Report 7

to really expand on our abilities, our team will work with C++ to add advanced functionality and

logic. Examples of this advanced logic are AI characters that will pursue the user, making object

manipulated by the user and making items breakable. The goals of the team are as follows:

Develop a game that uses the horror game genre and the puzzle gameplay style to deliver

a unique experience to consumers.

As developers, the project contributors hope to gain experience with Unreal Engine,

Blender, Agile Development methodology, and using tools like Git for source

management.

Learn how to integrate the software we create with hardware so that it runs efficiently

and with minimal latency.

Learn how to integrate multiple applications and deal with errors that occur from code

and from multiple platform usability

The goals are focused on learning with large scale projects in mind. The 5th Horseman is a

project that is massive and for the scale of the timeframe it has been heavily reduced to meet the

requirements. Even with a reduced project, it has a lot of work that will have to be put into it.

This project will be a huge learning curve in large project development and time management. I

think the development team will learn a lot about integrating many systems and it will be a

significant learning experience.

To quantify the game into a set of objectives requires looking at the entirety of the game

and developing specific ends that we want to make sure we achieve. This does not include small

objectives like creating a wall, but rather larger objectives that cover the overall project. These

objectives will be looked at in the end of the project by both the developers and the consumers.

Each will give a unique perspective on the project and will best judge if our team developed a
The 5th Horseman: Final Report 8

well-made project. The objectives are as follows:

Player can interact with objects; either manipulating in place or storing in inventory for

later.

Player can move seamlessly in fully rendered 3D environment.

Player can manipulate the environment in meaningful ways to approach the end goals.

Game keeps track of inventory, user statistics, variables, and progress.

Consumer understands the theme and is challenged but is able to complete the game.

The game will be evaluated by both the developers and with the consumer. The end game

will be given to the consumer with a survey that they will complete in the allotted time period

which will be gathered for metrics. The team will analyze their own work and the surveys

gathered to decide and report on completion of the project

Community and Stakeholders

As mentioned before, the community we wish to reach is the gaming community. The

gaming community used to be a small section of the population, but with the growth of

platforms, especially the mobile platform, our project seeks to reach to everyone (Brightman,

2017). To the non-gamers this could be the game that gets them into gaming. To the young

developers, this project could lead them into a successful career choice and guide their future.

And lastly we want to connect to current gamers by having them connect to our game and

remind them why they play games and contribute to their gaming lifestyle.

The stakeholders in the video game are often the developers and the publishers. The

recent technology has made this line blur quite a bit (Stakeholders, 2016). For our project, we

are the only stakeholder because we are creating, producing and marketing the game. Each of us
The 5th Horseman: Final Report 9

has a significant role in developing the game to its full potential. For the scope of this project we

will also be going to be producing the game and make it available on a windows platform. Future

goals would be to make The 5th Horseman available on many platforms.

Need for Project

The 5th Horseman is a project that we hope will bring a new idea to a large community.

Considering the gaming community is so large, it is hard to create a game that is noticed and

hyped for release, unless done with a large company (Reichert, 2012). For the scope of this

project we hope to add to the community by creating a game that is a new idea. No many horror

games have such a large puzzle aspect. We hope that this new type of game idea creates an

inspiration in others. The development process will take several aspects from survival games and

combine them in a new and interesting way. I think the need for this project is always there. New

games that bring a fresh light are highly sought after and The 5th Horseman will definitely do that

with its unique combination of genres.

Feasibility of Project

Within the gaming community it is common to see people compare games to others

because people always think people will rip off well performing games to get their own money.

This has led to a lot of games where they have the same concept as a popular game while

changing some aspects to make it unique. One example of this would be the prevalence of

Flappy Bird rip-offs (Killham, 2014). Our game, The 5th Horseman, has a lot of aspects from

other games but these are merely inspirations. For this section, each inspiration will be address

and we will show how they inspired our game but at the same time how our game is significantly

different and its own creation.

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The first and largest inspiration is Amnesia: The Dark Descent. This horror game was

developed in 2010 and is a huge inspiration for the feel that we are trying to accomplish.

Amnesia was well known for the helpless feeling it gave you because it had no fighting

mechanics (Lane, 2015). Some aspects that are similar in our game are the sense of hero loss of

empowerment, running from enemies and a general sense of helplessness. The 5th Horseman is

very similar to these characteristics. We want to make sure we have the hero feel hopeless and

running through the maze being chased is a prime example. As you can clearly see the

similarities, we are very much different. Amnesia focuses on the character for story line and

sanity. We focus on the story line as a personification of an actual legend and the player. Our

game will give the sense of helplessness by having you figuring out why you are doing these

puzzles and feeling like you have a little chance to get free. Another attribute that sets us apart is

the puzzle aspect. The puzzles will add to the user feeling helpless and makes us more of a

distinct game as to other horror games.

Another large inspiration was Five Nights at Freddys, which was a horror game where

you had to survive to the end of your shift. This is an inspiration because of the sense of

helplessness that Five Nights gives because you cant move and have minimal controls (Monroe,

2015). This is a very minimalistic approach. Again, the similarities here are the feel of

helplessness we want to capture. The 5th Horseman will not be as minimalistic in its approach but

we have taken inspiration from the feeling that the game gives. Our game greatly differs in the

mechanics because we rely on environment interaction to solve the puzzles laid out.

The last horror game that influenced us was Silent Hill PT. The iconic series had no

inventory (or very limited) and unusual in-game traps (Houghton, 2016). The similarities in our

game are mainly the no inventory system as well as the pure sensory experience. The 5th
The 5th Horseman: Final Report 11

Horseman has no inventory system because all the puzzles will just deal with manipulating the

environment. We want the user to feel the environment they are in and solve the puzzle with an

immediate satisfaction when you accomplish something. The 5th Horseman is radically different

from the Silent Hill series because we have more of a puzzle based game but the sensory aspect

is super inspirational for the team.

When it comes to our puzzle aspect of our game, we have had a few games that have

inspired us in how we implanted our ideas. One of the first puzzle games that influenced our spin

on horror games is Professor Layton Series. This game does a good job of creating puzzles in a

linear fashion that when you play gives you a sense of completeness while solving puzzles. Our

game aims to do this as well. We want to make sure we create our puzzles in a linear like quest

line. That way the player gets a good sense of the story line. Our game differs a lot because a

majority of what we took is the puzzle like system but our game has many more elements

making it its own unique experience.

The last inspiration was The Legend of Zelda series. The gameplay in this one is

usually very relaxed. What we liked in this series is how they made the difficulty of the game by

having the player learn the rules of the environment. We want The 5th Horseman to have the

same feel and have the player learn the tricks of each area. The personification of each horse in

each room allows the rules to change in each level. This will give the player a sense of challenge

from the levels they face and not from the enemies or from other aspects. We are very different

in the Zelda series because of our genre and overall game play.

The feasibility of this project, overall, is very attainable. We have several inspirations that

lead to our creation of The 5th Horseman. As similar as each of these are, the game developed
The 5th Horseman: Final Report 12

will be very different from each of these other well-known games. The difference in our project

has allowed us to create a unique gameplay. The 5th Horseman has a unique niche that we hope

to fill. The design of our project has elements seen all over the gaming community but I believe

that our game will add to the community in a new way. The horror puzzle combination is not one

often seen and will achieve its goal in adding to the gamers experiences.

Design Requirements

Functional Decomposition of the Project

The 5th Horseman has one major function that it must achieve. The game must be

designed to be completely playable and give the user a sense of horror and have a good aspect

puzzle as well. The game is designed into four playable

Character can walk.
puzzles, and while accomplishing each puzzle you are Game is playable with
minimal bugs.
amidst a very eerie world. The game can be broken down Game has sense of
into a few functional components given in figure to the
horror.
Game has decent
right. Each of these functions must be met to make sure puzzle difficulty.

that the game is a success. The first two functions are quantitative goals that can have a definitive

answer to. The last two functions are qualitative functions that will be evaluated by the testers

survey at the end. These functions are set to make sure that the game runs as effectively as

possible.

Selection of Design Criterion

Due to the scope of the project, there will not be a lengthy process to see minimum

requirements on the computers for the software to run. This means the project is being developed

without limitations, it is also being developed to run efficient on the machine that it was built on.
The 5th Horseman: Final Report 13

This may create issues later when we have people test and they are unable to get the game

running because the system is not up to par with what we need. The other concern is the

possibilities other type of systems to test the game such as a Mac operating system. With this

considered we want to make sure we have the game run as smooth as possible. This would be

something that will be added in the future and based off the survey the testers give us. We hope

that the game will run smooth. The cost of the game has a budget of $50 but this is emergency

funds. The game should be able to be created 100% free but if we need to speed some things up,

we will add some additional items. The size of the code is very expansive but only half of it will

be hard coded. The interface of Unreal Engine 4 has most of the code already manipulated by the

interface but we will still change some of the C++ code to make the game even more desirable.

Final Deliverables

The main deliverable our team is creating is a complete game from unreal engine. There

is a second optional deliverable that may or may not make it to the final deliverable stage but is

wanted. The game will be developed into an executable that will be given to the testers. If the

time allows, the game will be put onto a webpage that testers will go to. This will allow for the

game to be displayed a part of a package that we could give out to our job applications. The

game will run and have a beginning and an end. The game will display when the player has

ended and they have completed the game.

Approach and Methodology

The project is to be developed into two phases. The first phase is creating a game into an

alpha stage that runs at about 30 minutes. The second stage is a testing phase that others get to

test and provide feedback on various aspects of the game.

The 5th Horseman: Final Report 14

Without a combat system this will rely on evading and finding how to accomplish the

goals by manipulating the environment. The game itself will focus heavily on the development

of the lore and the storyline. In terms of design, our emphasis will be on showing rather than

telling, with the environment demonstrating various aspects of the world. From a more

mechanical perspective; this project will use several middleware systems and tools to help speed

the development process. First; the project will be developed in the Unreal Game Engine (1.15.1)

with C++ used as a scripting language for the various features of the game. Secondly, we will be

using Blender and Photoshop to make 3d assets and textures for our models. Thirdly, we will be

using Github as version control software for our assets and codebase. Lastly, we will be using

PivotalTracker to coordinate our efforts in order to work as quickly and efficiently as possible.

This project will be evaluated by the test group. We dont necessarily have a client or a

group that we are creating the game for; so, this test group will be critical in evaluating the

success or failure of the project. The goal in the end is to create a game that has at least a 70%

approval rating as measured by a rubric administered to all our test group. The second evaluation

will be with the developer dairy and will be where we can rate our success on learning and

teamwork. This will be very helpful as it will document how the project evolved or changed over

time.

Legal Considerations

The main legal considerations here are the copyright infringements that we wish to avoid.

Unreal Engine has a copyright on the game that has certain rules. The engine only gains money

from us if we monetize our game and we make above a certain amount. Another legal concern is

the audio. The team also must make sure the audio is royalty free. This means all audio used and

all music used must not have any money that is paid to anyone. The last legal concern is to make
The 5th Horseman: Final Report 15

sure the game name and the game story line is not too like others like it. These legal

considerations will be heavily looked at in many different manners. Each will be looked up to

make sure that they not infringe on any existing copyright. Preliminary search has yielded

nothing but more research will double check.

Ethical Considerations

Video games can be an ethical minefield. Much of the ethical conundrum in gaming

comes from its tendency to focus on aggression and violence. Additionally, there are worries that

games are nothing more than infantile empowerment fantasies brought to life with the power of

computers.

Games are nearing a critical stage in their cultural development into a respectable artistic

medium. As we had mentioned in our introduction; games like That Dragon, Cancer and The

Witness are pushing the bounds of what we think games ought to be. Games are now being

released that challenge the assumption that games are purely for enjoyment. Games are helping

people cope with depression, work through the damage of post-traumatic stress disorder, and

pushing players to grow as people. However, this evolution is not a conscious and concerted

decision by an industry concerned with the ethical underpinnings of its work.

Instead it is a bottom up movement. Developers everywhere are taking up the ethical duty

to push the limits of their craft and build something that the world needs but is only just starting

to ask for. In our project, we are acting as game developers. This means that we need to take our

responsibility to our players and our respect for their maturity seriously. We cannot deliver a

cheap experience based around gore and jump scares. If we hope to be a part of the wonderful

world of game development, we need to push ourselves to provide a more emotional and artistic

experience for our players.

The 5th Horseman: Final Report 16

In addition, we will be dealing with religious themes. The lore of our game is steeped in

Christian eschatology and plays with powerful symbols of the Christian faith. We need to treat

them with the respect that they deserve as a poorly executed rendition of religious symbols can

destroy a work and can enrage our audience.

More to this project; we must be careful to pick a diverse test audience to get a true

representation of the wider gaming community. Our friends are (generally) like us: young urban

geeks and gamers. We need to consciously fight against the urge to make our audience an echo

chamber of our own tastes and feelings. We can combat this by actively building a test group of

people of as diverse backgrounds as we can find.

Lastly, people will be testing our game because they know us and this can lead to skewed

reviews. This can make it difficult to get truly honest feedback. As such, we will need to

anonymize feedback so that players feel able to speak their minds and give honest criticism of

our work.

Timeline and Budget

The 5th Horseman project was divided up into four separate phases. Phase one is one

week where we finalized the game development plan to work toward the same goal and have an

end goal. The second phase would take about two weeks. During this time, we worked on the

level design, with a focus on making sure each level was designed well. Minor texturing was

added into this part. The third phase was texturing the levels as well as implementing the game

logic. The game has four levels each with some logic to its mini-game. The last stage was

finishing minor touches and sending it out to the testers to get a valuable feedback on it. This

phase design was simple and easy to work with. The last item out team discussed was budget.

This project was designed to 100% free. Unreal Engine has a massive library of open source
The 5th Horseman: Final Report 17

resources. We set aside a small stipend of $50 in case we needed to buy an asset pack. Though

that money will be a last resort and only to help us move the project along faster.

Usability Testing and Evaluation

The 5th Horseman was an interesting project that had no client. The client was the

consumer when the game is set to be released. Nowadays, games are released to a very small

group for alpha testing, then to a larger group for closed or open beta testing. The beta testing is

usually right before or a few weeks before the actual release of the game. Then the game is

released. For the purposes of our game, we consider this somewhat of an alpha test. There are a

lot of things we think that need updated and worked on but at the same time there is a lot of good

things that we want input on. Our test plan has two forms one for the developers and one

released to the alpha testers. (see Appendix A)

We have four different forms that were filled out. There was the usability, functional,

developers, and client survey. The first form was the usability form. This form was a simple

form that let us know that the game that we developed. The game had to be made so that there

were minimal bugs. This meant that the player could go through the game and not experience

any issues. The usability means that the interface was intuitive, the buttons to play the game

made sense and that you didnt have any questions. In our usability survey, we found that the

game was very intuitive but at the same time we did not have the key bindings imbedded in the

game. It would have been smart to have a key that you could press to see what the controls

where.

The second survey must deal with the function of the game. This survey focus on the

function of the game and making sure the bugs encountered was limited. This included asking
The 5th Horseman: Final Report 18

questions that dealt with the game breaking, the game being unable to run and any other issues.

Now when we opened the testing we did want open communication so that those who

participated would have immediate access to our help if needed. This didnt seem to be needed

and the bugs were very limited. One thing we are grateful for using Unreal Engine for is the

amazing lack of bugs that got developed because of the editors debugging system.

The developers survey is a series of question we wanted to ask ourselves to make sure

we meet the goals that we set in the beginning of the project. Earlier we outlined many various

aspects that we want to learn from the project. This included making sure we learned C++, along

with other things. This survey was filled out by the team to give us a collective view. We all had

separate roles that led us to have a slightly unique experience. The overall goal is to learn in the

end still as a team and progress together.

The last survey we developed was a survey for the clients. This survey was given to

each of the alpha testers so they could tell us on their experience. This had to do more with

personal questions. The questions centered on the gameplay, the story, how the player felt and

how the player enjoyed the game itself. The purpose of this was to give us reliable feedback on

the game and to justify that the end goal was being met. We wanted to create game that made the

player felt immersed in. Though our graphics may not be the best, it still did its job.

Each of these surveys are optimized to give us an actual judgment on the progress of our

work. We spent 7 long weeks developing a game that we want to make an impact on the gaming

community. To do this we had to think outside of the box and it took us a lot of hours and some

hard thinking to get it done. The surveys do a respectable job at re-affirming that we did a good

job.
The 5th Horseman: Final Report 19

Final Implementations

The game can be split into four distinct areas. It is a linear path from one area to the next

and completing one area is the prerequisite to unlocking the next. The portals between areas are

presented to the player as flickering sparks that they must move into to progress.

Area One: Pestilence

The first area of the game includes a maze. It isnt timed, but as the user runs through the

area to find the exit, their health bar drains consistently. The logic was implemented with

Unreals blueprint system. First, we set a spawn point and a condition for player death. We had

the health drain as a result of the players collision with the terrain in the maze.

Upon completion of the maze, the player can move forward to the next area.

[Blueprint for player health and death]

Area Two: War

The second area includes a destructive puzzle where the player must step on each tile

once to turn out the lights that emanate from each one. If they step on a tile twice, however, they

plummet to their death. Upon successfully stepping on each tile once without overlapping, they
The 5th Horseman: Final Report 20

player is given access to the next area.

We were able to implement this by creating reference to each tile on the ground and

generating an overlap state when the player touches the tiles. Once all of the tiles have had

their lights stomped out, the clear wall that separates the player from moving into the next area

disappears.

[Blueprint for a single tile]

Area Three: Famine

The third area features the Tower of Hanoi puzzle. The goal is to move all of the

platforms from the left-most ring to the right-most ring. The conditions of the puzzle dictate that

the player cannot stack a bigger platform on top of a smaller one, and the player cannot move

more than one platform at a time. Our puzzle presents the player with three platforms and forces

the player to solve it in the most efficient way possible in seven moves.

We struggled a little bit while trying to implement the logic behind the puzzle initially.

From a pure coding standpoint, we could easily make the puzzle with each platform being an
The 5th Horseman: Final Report 21

object that had a specific internal value. The biggest platform would have the largest value for

weight. We would then have coded in logic to allow the player to stack each item in an array,

keeping legal moves limited to having the first items in the array be the objects with greater

weight. While we could write out the pseudocode easily, it was a different story when it came to

implementing it in Unreal.

After a few rounds of research, we went with using Blueprints system for enumeration.

We had the program evaluate each step, which were all possible legal states that the player

would be in at any given step of the puzzle. Depending on the current step they are on and which

platform they select to move, the player would either be able to continue solving the puzzle or

they were die and respawn at the beginning.

[Blueprint for one switch, featuring selection and step logic]

Area Four: Death

The last area and final puzzle of the game presents the player with a choice. They can

either sacrifice themselves or they can walk away from their nightmarish setting. This area that

represents the horseman of death is a branching path that leads to two different endings that the

player can achieve.

The 5th Horseman: Final Report 22

We packaged the game into an .exe file that runs on 32-bit windows systems. At the end

of the game, the program automatically closes out after the presentation of the users ending.

Design and Implementation Issues

We had originally designed the game to be a bit bigger, tougher, and with more

background lore to the story. Due to the time limitations and our process that ultimately led to us

learning as we progressed, we had to scale back a lot. For example, for our fourth area, we were

going to have a puzzle where the player has to ferry sheep across a river. On one side of the

river, there were several sheep and a wolf. The user would have access to a boat. The puzzles

limitations included not being able to leave the wolf alone with a lone sheep at any given point

on either side of the river. They would also only be able to ferry two creatures at a time on their

boat. As we ran short on time, we realized that implementing this puzzle would not only take a

fair amount of research on Unreals built-in functions and systems, but also an even larger

amount of time designing the assets.

Conclusions

The project of The 5th Horseman was aimed at helping the gaming community and

adding a game to community that would make an impact. We as a team created a game that

merged the horror and puzzle games to give a new sense to the gaming environment. We took

the biblical tale of The 5th Horseman to tell a story and make the player have a sense of ironic

heroism. As a team, we learned how to use multiple softwares to create a large-scale project.

We also learned how to model in blender and how to code in C++ especially in the Unreal

Engine setting. The end goal was to create a type of game that the player felt was unique and

different that it may stand out to them in some aspect.

The 5th Horseman: Final Report 23

The game is developed into four different rooms and four different puzzles. The puzzles

are a maze with poison, a tile challenge to turn off each tile, a simple Hanoi tower design and the

last room being a simple choice to join the horseman or escape. The rooms personify each of the

Horses and tell the tale of the horseman by the type of puzzle and by how each room is

completed. The goal was to tell the biblical story in a new and transformative way that you

almost didnt realize the origin of the story. We had to be concern of any epileptic moments that

may occur and that all the assets and music where royalty free. The ethics of the game are just

making sure it doesnt raise concerns like violence and makes the game add to the player's life by

teaching a lesson as to make them feel uneasy.

The game was developed over four phases, each of them slowly developing a part of the

game and the last phase for testing. Each of the testers got surveys to fill out and the developers

filled out our own survey to make sure we met our own initial goal of the project. We used

Unreal Engine 4 to code and develop the game. We spent about half the time coding and another

half of the time developing the game with the game engine.

In the end, we successfully created a game that met the requirements and as developers

we grew as a team. We learned so much and created a horror puzzle game that really defines us

as a team. The result was a good product that had a good outlook at the alpha group. In the future

this is something that could really be made as an independent game.

The 5th Horseman: Final Report 24

References

Brightman, J. (2017, April 20). Mobile games booming as global games market hits $108.9B in

2017 - Newzoo. Retrieved from http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-04-20-

mobile-games-booming-as-global-games-market-hits-usd108-9b-in-2017-newzoo

Houghton, D. (2016, October 31). P.T. is still the purest horror game around, and one of the

smartest on PS4. Retrieved from http://www.gamesradar.com/why-pt-first-real-horror-

game-years-and-best-game-ps4/

Killham, E. (2014, February 21). The best (and worst) of some recent Flappy Bird knockoffs.

Retrieved from https://venturebeat.com/2014/02/21/the-best-and-worst-of-some-recent-

flappy-bird-knockoffs/

Lane, R. (2015, April 10). The monstrous evolution of Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Retrieved

from http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-10-04-the-monstrous-evolution-of-

amnesia-the-dark-descent

Monroe, N. (2015, October 28). What Makes Five Night's at Freddy's So Special. Retrieved from

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/features/14868-Five-Nights-At-Freddys-

Lore-Summary

Parker, L. (2011, February 14). The Rise of the Indie Developer. Retrieved from

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-rise-of-the-indie-developer/1100-6298425/

Reichert, K. (2012, November 1). Top 5 Problems Faced By Indie Game Developers. Retrieved

from

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/KateReichert/20121101/180767/Top_5_Problems_Face

d_By_Indie_Game_Developers.php

Stakeholders in the video games industry. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.biu-

The 5th Horseman: Final Report 25

online.de/en/stakeholders-in-the-video-games-industry/
The 5th Horseman: Final Report 26

Appendix

Appendix A

This is the survey for the usability:

https://docs.google.com/a/csumb.edu/forms/d/1AXUi1cEnm79GhT4vyOyR4GnR4yz_9mFOm--
ExxbSJuE/edit?ts=593db37f

This is the survey for the function:

https://docs.google.com/a/csumb.edu/forms/d/1Lbo6VY7GY1GwFyf7R7DVFxSUsszqA6sByD
4cgGC1nMk/edit?ts=593db4c6

This is the survey for the developers:

https://docs.google.com/a/csumb.edu/forms/d/1bQyZa1X9PuK77FxMHgw4zzcSz89Jh90Gtu9G
xCmIpBc/edit?ts=593db75c

This is the survey for the testers: https://docs.google.com/a/csumb.edu/forms/d/1hZHoTM-

2IWvGD34EObWKk6bIdDfBI94XIdouvLAADzA/edit?ts=593db578
The 5th Horseman: Final Report 27

Appendix B

Team member responsibilities

The work was split up to maximize the output. We split the work so that we would get the most

done in the short amount of time.

Brett: Level design, game logic

Stephanie: texturing, game debugging

Randall: addition of sound, AI programming