Introduction
Out of Frame is a first-person horror game where a student, trapped in a nightmare version of their school, escapes by photographing scenes and evidence of past bullying, uncovering the truth as the story pushes forward. Taking photos can change the environment's state, and an AI ghost, Bully, is a constant threat only visible when the camera is on.
My Roles:
I worked on 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
Built the full player control system (movement, camera handling, interaction) alongside the GameMode and GameState driving progression and rules
Camera-on disables sprinting, forcing a constant trade-off between visibility and mobility
Camera interaction loop for anomalous objects: active objects float, rotate, and glow like a powered-on screen, drawing attention even in dark spaces; once photographed, effects shut off and the object drops to the ground
Level & Encounter Design
Game Pacing & Tutorial
No text prompts or UI tutorials: each learning beat requires the player to perform the action to move forward
Taught the ghost-reaction mechanic by placing players in a dead-end, so they naturally turn around and are forced to face what's behind them
Built a final infinite-loop skill gate, where players repeat the core actions until comfortable, before the game unlocks the story and lets it take over
Narrative Design
Character Dialogue & Story Progression
Wrote short, progress-based dialogue lines through a subtitle system, reflecting what the character feels in the moment without breaking immersion
Tied each line to a specific moment or trigger, so the character's emotional state reads as reactive and present, not scripted
Treated the subtitle =as a window into the character's feeling, not an instruction panel
UX Design
UI, Camera Feel & Post-Processing
Designed every UI element to feel native to the camera device, inspired by Outlast 2 but with more components and animations for moment-to-moment clarity
Built camera-embedded indicators: a proximity icon (distance to the anomaly), a detection icon (whether the monster has noticed you), and a remaining-lives display, all without breaking the fiction of holding a real camera
Built a bodycam-style post-process (lens distortion, noise, grain, physical imperfections) for a handheld-device feel
Added camera tilt and head-bob during movement so the camera feels physically carried, not stabilized