Introduction
Out of Frame is a first-person horror game. The player controls a student trapped in a nightmare of their school. To escape, the player must use a camera to photograph scenes and evidence of past bullying, uncovering the truth and pushing the story forward.
Taking photos can change the state of the environment. The game also features an AI ghost called Bully, a constant threat that can only be seen when the camera is turned on.
My Roles:
I worked across Technical Design, Narrative Design, and UX Design, with a focus on making the camera mechanic feel like the core of the experience.
Technical Design: Built the player foundation (3C), camera interaction logic, and tension feedback (camera shake) to support horror pacing.
Narrative Design: Structured the story as “photographable evidence,” turning memories into gameplay beats that unlock progression.
UX Design: Designed the camera UI and interaction clarity, inspired by Outlast 2 but with more detailed battery segmentation and UI animations.
Technical Design
（Player 3C, Core Architecture)
The technical foundation of Out of Frame centers on one design intention: making the player feel grounded, vulnerable, and physically present at all times.
I built the full player control system — movement, camera handling, and interaction — alongside the GameMode and GameState that drive progression and rules. The controls are deliberately constrained. When the camera is on, the player can't sprint, which creates a constant trade-off between visibility and mobility. That tension is the core of the game feel: you're never fully in control, and that's what makes you scared.
I also designed and implemented the camera interaction loop for anomalous objects. When an object is active, it floats, slowly rotates, and glows — like a powered-on screen — drawing the player's attention even in dark spaces. Once photographed, the object resolves: visual effects shut off, and it drops to the ground. That "snap back to reality" moment is simple, but it gives every successful photograph a satisfying sense of weight and consequence.
Level & Encounter Design
(Game Pacing & Tutorial)
My approach to level design in Out of Frame follows one rule: teach one thing at a time, and let the space do the teaching.
Rather than using text prompts or UI tutorials, I structured each learning beat so the player has to perform the action to move forward. For example, to teach players how to react to the ghost, I placed them in a dead-end — so they naturally turn around and are forced to face what's behind them. The space creates the encounter; the encounter teaches the mechanic.
To confirm that the core loop is fully internalized before the story escalates, I built a final infinite-loop skill gate — a space where the player repeats the essential actions until they're clearly comfortable. Only once those mechanics are locked in does the game open up and let the narrative take over. It's a structure I'm particularly happy with: it respects the player's learning curve without ever feeling like a formal tutorial.
Narrative Design
(Character Dialogue & Story Progression)
On the narrative side, I wrote a series of short, progress-based character dialogue lines displayed through a subtitle system, designed to reflect what the character is feeling in the moment and gently push the story forward — without ever breaking immersion or pulling the player out of the experience.
The writing follows the same principle as the level design: one beat at a time. Each line of dialogue is tied to a specific moment or trigger, so the character's emotional state always feels reactive and present rather than scripted. The goal was to make the subtitle box feel like a window into the character's fear, not an instruction panel.
UX Design
(UI, Camera Feel & Post-Processing)
For UX, my focus was on making every interface element feel like it belongs on the camera device — taking inspiration from Outlast 2, but pushing further with additional components and animations to improve moment-to-moment clarity.
I designed a set of camera-embedded indicators: a proximity icon that shows how close the player is to an anomaly, a detection icon that signals whether the monster has noticed you, and a remaining lives display. Each element is designed to deliver critical information without breaking the fiction of holding a real camera.
On the feedback side, I built a bodycam-style post-process with lens distortion, noise, grain, and other physical imperfections to reinforce the feeling of a real handheld device. I also implemented camera tilt and head-bob during movement, so the camera feels physically carried rather than perfectly stabilized — making the experience simultaneously more grounded and more unsettling.