The Iron Crypt

Project Overview

This is a single-player horror RPG inspired by the Portal and Dead Space series. Set in a dark distant future, The Iron Crypt follows an investigator sent to a mining space colony on Jupiter's moon of Europa. The colony has been radio silent for many years, and the player must assume the role of the investigator and discover the dark truth about the facility, all while being hunted by a terrifying creature.

My Role

I began developing The Iron Crypt at 19, learning Unity and software development as I built it. My work spanned the project: writing the story and script, creating the facility and environments, designing the creature/gameplay mechanics, animating, creating/editing audio, and implementing gameplay systems. I adapted publicly available assets where appropriate and created others from scratch, (such as the elevator-built from simple geometric shapes). I also made physical artwork, digitized it, and incorporated it into the game.

Design & Development

Designing and developing the player experience, atmosphere, and mechanics was one of my favorite things to do while making this game. I was heavily inspired by my favorite game: Portal 2. The Portal series by Valve always left me feeling a bit unsettled in its vast and sometimes derelict locales, and I thought that such a place would make a fantastic setting for a horror game. I made the player experience in The Iron Crypt to be based on this, and have a constant sense of unease hanging around the player. I tried to do this via environmental storytelling, plot devices such as old written notes, old automated message playbacks, machinery, ruin, and ambience. Next, I designed the survival mechanics to give players enough agency to progress, but never enough power to feel safe. They can evade the creature and push deeper into the facility, but they can’t fight back. When it appears, escape is the only option.

Challenges & Outcomes

The biggest challenge was managing the project’s scope. I kept expanding the story and adding new ideas without setting a clear definition of “finished”. The game and its story got so large that I reached a point where I had spread myself too thin. Gameplay which I should have spent time refining got pushed aside to make way for new content. I ultimately did not release the game because it hadn’t reached the quality standard I wanted. The experience taught me to set clearer limits, prioritize polish, and define what completion means before a project grows beyond what I can finish. Despite that, I’m still incredibly proud of The Iron Crypt.