Chicken Feet (2022)

A game solo developed by Dylan Bassett

Dev Synopsis

Chicken Feet was my first commercial release, developed while I was in high school. At the time of release, I had been learning Unreal Engine for roughly two years in my personal time.

As with all of my solo projects, I did the programming and design myself. Most of the art for this project came from Fab. The sound effects were sourced from Fab and Freesound.

I worked with a few contractors for this project. One for the character model of Sebastian, and others for voice acting. One of the voice actors was a previous AP computer science teacher of mine. I did the voice acting for the character Sebastian.

Programming

Most of the programming for this was done in Blueprints, with about 2% being C++ for an AI related issue.

The game has typical first person character movement controls, including running, crouching, jumping, and sliding. There is no health or meaningful inventory system. It's fairly simple.

The AI is fairly simple. Cooper the Chicken just patrols the environments searching for the player and gives chase if they see them.

One of the more advanced programming aspects of this project, at least for me at the time, was creating seamless level transitions using level streaming. Some triggers had to exist in the main level, outside of any specific level. Those handled the loading and unloading of other levels using soft object references. I created my own for loop function for level loading that waited before each iteration depending on if a sub-level had fully loaded.

My unreleased projects before this were very complex. Beginning in UE4, I had built 'true first person' character controllers that included hiding in lockers, under beds, and movement like mantling. I also had fairly complex enemy AI that could pull you out from hiding places and shared the same movement capabilities as the player. Think of something like Outlast. However, I just couldn't get all the systems to feel good at the time. So I stripped the game down a lot and focused on making something fun and easy to play. That became Chicken Feet.

Art + Audio Direction

Nearly all of the art in this game came from the Fab marketplace.

Even Cooper the Chicken themself was a simple chicken mesh, scaled up massively. As a non-artist on a tight budget for this project, I'm grateful for assets like these.

I did work with a contractor for the model of Sebastian, the genetically modified human who rescues the day at the end of the game. They were in Europe, so we had to coordinate time zones and work accordingly.

This game ran on Unreal 5.0, and it was my first game in UE5. I had previously made prototypes and a short, unreleased horror game in UE4. Taking advantage of the new tech, I used Lumen to light the scenes. This created some fantastic lighting in many of the scenes. I played around with volumetric lighting and fog to add some creepy atmosphere.

Design

Sometime in April of 2022, I opened a txt document and wrote out a few game ideas. The first one listed was "giant chicken chasing you, would be both scary and funny". That simple sentence led to Chicken Feet.

Overall, this game is a simple run-from-the-enemy stealth horror game. It's not traditional survival horror; there aren't really survival elements.

Being chased by Cooper is fairly terrifying. The screen shakes with each of their steps and chicken noises scream at you from behind. When you are caught, you get a jumpscare.

There are three primary levels in the main campaign, and three in the DLC "Breakout". Each level is designed around shortcuts, nooks, and fun ways to escape from Cooper. I designed the environments to look realistic and believable while still allowing fun gameplay moments.

I colored the environments via lighting to denote the player's descent. The first tutorial area is white and glowing, the second area is blue and cold, the third is yellow and oppressive, and the last area is red and claustrophobic.

The friendly voice over the radio, Eric, who was voiced by my former computer science teacher in high school, speaks sarcastically, crudely, and demandingly. Despite that, he's positioned as your guide. Obviously the chicken is the antagonist. But we get glimpses of a shadowy humanoid figure throughout the game. He is disfigured, with his jaw hanging oddly. His name is Sebastian, a genetically modified human.

In the end, questions are raised, and the disfigured, monstrously looking and sounding Sebastian saves the day, killing the true antagonist, Eric. With a giant chicken at the center of the story, who was created as an experiment for mass meat production, I get to play with the ideas of humans vs monsters, animal cruelty, and identity.

Writing

The writing of Chicken Feet was fun. Crafting the story was very satisfying, given the metaphorical depth of all the characters and their predicaments.

I wrote up highly detailed character sheets for my voice actors to really immerse them in the roles. My voice line documents are written similar to movie scripts, and have been ever seen (even my most recent projects).