Escape From Dreadmoor Manor
Full Gameplay
Escape From Dreadmoor Manor is the second game I created for my Advanced Games Technical Design module during my third and final year at Staffordshire University. This was a solo project so I created all of the mechanics myself in Unreal Engine 5.
Game High Concept
Escape From Dreadmoor Manor is a horror escape room game set in a Victorian House. The player must solve multiple puzzles to exit three different rooms to ultimately escape the house.
Game Description
The player wakes up inside of a Victorian Mansion finding out that they are trapped. They need to look around the rooms and solve puzzles in order to escape from the mansion.
In the first room, the player must looks for the numbers hidden in the stars using the telescope. These numbers will be used to unlock a chest on the table revealing a Morse Code book. The player needs to use this and the Morse Code Machine to solve the clue. The answer to this clue is a book on the bookshelf. They need to pull this book to reveal a hidden staircase.
In the second room, the player sees a broken grandfather clock. To fix it they must find all of the cogs and place them back into its cabinet. Once this has been done, the clock will show a time, this corresponds to a padlock code for the door that leads to the third and final room.
Game Highlights (What I Worked On)
In the third and final room, the player must solve a jigsaw puzzle on the wall which turns into a painting on completion. There are 4 hidden numbers in this painting. This is a phone number that they must dial into the phone. Once they have done this, a riddle will play which leads them to find a key behind a painting. This key opens the door to the grand staircase. At the bottom of the stairs is the front door of the mansion.
Constellation Puzzle
The first room is an office that has a telescope in it. The player uses this telescope to find clues in the stars that may help them escape the room.
I made an image in Photoshop with a space background. I drew the constellations onto the background featuring numbers and actual star signs mixed together.
Inside of the blueprint, it detects when the camera has moved to a specific point in the blueprint to stop moving. For example, it detects when it has reached the right edge when the player holds the right arrow button. When it reaches the end, the camera will not move regardless whether the player is holding the button or not.
Morse Code Puzzle
To keep in with the theme and the period/era that the game is set in, I decided to add a morse code puzzle. To access the morse code book, the player must use the cade from the constellation puzzle to unlock the chest on the desk. The player can click on the morse code machine to play it, then look at the book to solve the puzzle.
Everything is in one blueprint to make it easier with the camera. I used a timeline to make the morse code machine to move up and down and used a lot of trial and error with precise timings to make sure the dots and dashes are played at the same time as the movements on the machine.
Bookshelf
Once the player has completed the Morse Code Puzzle, they need to find the book that matches the book title they got from the puzzle.
I made one blueprint for the book and a UI element that goes with it that shows the book cover. The main blueprint contains the bookshelf with 10 child blueprints of the book. If the line trace that is coming off the player hits the book that matches the correct title, it will be pulled out and open the bookshelf like a door. Both of the book movements and the bookshelf movements are achieved using timelines.
Combination Lock
This is a staple for an escape room game. I used this combination lock in two places, on the box for the morse code puzzle, and in the second room with the grandfather clock. This lock works by clicking the arrows to increase or decrease the value.
I made a blueprint that held two separate meshes for the lock, the base and the lock. It also had a UI component in it, this is the arrows.
Grandfather Clock Puzzle
This puzzle has six cogs hidden around the room. The player must find them and place them back in the grandfather clock to turn it back on. The clock's hands will then turn to show a time, this time is actually the combination to exit the room.
The cogs utilise the interaction mechanic where the player can pick up the cogs and bring them over to the clock. When they are close enough to the clock, it gets automatically placed in its correct position in the clock.
Painting Jigsaw Puzzle
I created this painting using an AI image generator and Photoshop to add the numbers. When the player solves the puzzle, it will show four numbers, these numbers are for the phone.
I use multiple widgets to make this puzzle, a main puzzle widget, a widget for a piece, and one for the play area.
Phone Riddle Puzzle
This is the final puzzle in the game. The player must use the number from the jigsaw puzzle, and dial it in the phone. If the number is correct, a riddle will play.
This puzzle involves a blueprint that uses invisible sphere meshes over the numbers. This is to make it clickable by the player. When the player clicks a number, a timeline plays, allowing the dial to spin to that number, and then spin back.
Painting and Key
The answer to the riddle is a painting of Queen Victoria. Behind the painting is a key to escape the room and the mansion.
Once interacted with, the door uses a timeline to slowly rotate to open. The key appears to be stuck on the wall, once the player interacts with it, it falls on the floor. The key works the same as the cogs in that when the player walks up to the door whilst holding the key, the key will get snatched out of the player's hand and proceed to unlock the door.