Missed Calls explores the story behind an unknown character, brought from the perspective of a player in the midst of searching a case of a missing person. Through clues hidden around the small living space, the player may uncover more explicit details regarding the whereabouts of the homeowner. The game emphasizes experiences in exploring pieces of evidence, sound, and text. The developement of this story emphasized best practices for game feel and UI design, or the overall intersection between two-dimensional visuals, sound, and programming.
About the Process
This game was born from a narrative, mystery story. It was inspired by single-player story games such as the Life is Strange series by Don't Nod and Deck Nine Games.
Modeling, texturing, and staging the scene took about half of the total project's time. The second half involved turning certain models into interactable objects that could aid the telling of a story.
I explored the idea of gameplay puzzles that could be solved by exploring the environment. For example, there is a section of dialogue that may only be discovered by finding the correct phone number hidden in the room. I built this mechanic to encourage exploration of the scene beyond just looking around.
As an extra challenge, I researched ways to create a dynamic, typewriter style dialogue box with Unreal's user interface tools. Combined with a stylized font in the engine, I hoped to create a cozy and relatable story.
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