Explore
Search the liminal mall for routes, supplies and clues about the environment.
Cursed Image Jam · 2021
Transition
Explore an abandoned liminal space and manually operate every stage of your weapons to survive the entities roaming inside.
Project Overview
Wake up.
Arm yourself.
Find a way out.
Transition is an atmospheric survival-horror FPS created by a four-person team for the Cursed Image Jam.
The player wakes inside a sinister abandoned mall populated by unknown entities and must explore the liminal environment while searching for an escape.
Combat uses tactile manual weapon handling, requiring the player to perform individual firing and reloading actions while enemies continue to approach.
- My Role
-
Level Design, UI
and Narrative - Engine
- Unity
- Platforms
- Windows and WebGL
- Team
- Four Developers
- Development
-
Cursed Image Jam
Demo · 2021
Design Concept
Transition combines the uncertainty of liminal spaces with deliberate weapon interactions that prevent combat from ever feeling effortless.
The abandoned mall uses familiar architecture stripped of its normal activity and purpose, creating an environment that feels recognisable but fundamentally wrong.
Manual firearm operation increases vulnerability. Even with a weapon, the player must remain calm enough to complete each action correctly while hostile entities move closer.
Core Player Loop
Prepare
Ready the weapon and ensure ammunition is correctly loaded and chambered.
Survive
Fight approaching entities using firearms, melee attacks and careful positioning.
Recover
Collect pills to restore health before continuing the search for an exit.
Manual Weapon Handling
Weapon interactions are separated into deliberate steps instead of using a single automatic reload.
Reload
Begin the reload sequence when ammunition has been depleted.
Load
Insert the required shell or round into the weapon.
Chamber
Operate the weapon mechanism to prepare the next shot.
Fire
Aim and activate the weapon while managing the next required action.
The player can also aim down sights, inspect weapons, crouch and use melee attacks when enemies enter close range.
My Contribution
My work concentrated on shaping the playable space, presenting information clearly and helping establish the project’s narrative direction.
Level Design
Liminal Environments
UI Design
Plot Development
Collaborative Game Design
Combat Encounter Layout
Player Guidance
Created alongside Minde, Charley and James.
Development Challenge
The main challenge was creating an environment that supported both disorienting horror and readable first-person combat.
Liminal spaces benefit from repetition and uncertainty, but combat requires the player to understand available routes, enemy positions and nearby cover.
The level therefore needed to feel unfamiliar without becoming impossible to navigate during encounters.
The manual shooting mechanics introduced another layer of complexity because encounter timing had to account for every reload and chambering action.
Game Gallery
Somewhere
Between
Gameplay footage and screenshots showing the liminal mall, creature encounters and manually animated weapon interactions.
Narrative Direction
The wider narrative was designed around the player transitioning toward death while trapped in limbo.
This storyline remained a planned direction rather than a fully realised part of the short jam demo. The released build instead focuses on atmosphere, exploration and surviving the immediate environment.
I remain particularly proud of the project’s visual identity and the weapon animations created by my teammates, which gave the prototype a distinctive and unusually tactile presentation.
Play Transition on itch.io