u/Level-Guest-4036

In my previous post, I talked about the major struggles and small victories I faced while building the locomotive cabin level. It’s probably worth mentioning again that Dark Trip is an Escape Room-style game being developed for both PC and VR. And in VR especially, atmosphere is everything.

Since I’m a solo developer handling the level design, visual art, implementation, programming, sound, and… well, basically everything (though not without help from a colleague and friends!), not every idea works perfectly on the first try. Sometimes the flaws only become obvious later — especially after creating newer levels where the style and atmosphere feel much more refined. Going back to older content after that can be a painful experience. Some levels just stop feeling as interesting as they once did.

One of those levels was the “Generator Room.”

Overall, the level itself was decent. But the “under the pills” mode (where the player takes a mysterious substance that lets them see things hidden from them in a normal state) felt a bit underwhelming. Especially compared to the newer areas. Players noticed it too: not enough snakes, not enough horror, not enough hallucination-fueled madness.

Either way, it was time to revisit the level and push it further.

The first — and easiest — thing to tackle was the lighting. As usual, I spent far too long tweaking colors and effects trying to find the most aggressively psychedelic setup possible. In the end, I couldn’t decide which version worked best, so I simply blended several of my favorites together with smooth transitions. Honestly, I think it added exactly the right amount of insanity.

The second step was updating the wall textures. Well… “simple” is maybe the wrong word. Rotate the level, experiment in Photoshop, import it into the game, check it in VR, back to Photoshop, repeat endlessly. Technically straightforward, but incredibly time-consuming if you actually want it to look good. In the end, the walls became covered in scales and strange messages promoting a healthy lifestyle.

Third came the new environmental details. Again, not especially difficult in theory: walk through the level, feel the atmosphere, figure out what’s missing… and then create an oyster-octopus creature hanging from the ceiling. Naturally fully animated, with tentacles spreading across the ceiling, dangling down, twitching and crawling around. And while I was at it, I added more tentacles to the walls too. They poke out and move as well. There should be life everywhere.

The fourth and final piece was the sound design. Psychedelic booming noises, hissing snakes, shifting sand, distant wind… and the voice of a girl calling for a healthy lifestyle.. By the way, will you be able to understand what she says and translate it from German?

And that’s pretty much it! The “under the pills” version of the level turned out strange, oppressive, and unsettling — exactly the way I wanted it. I’m really curious to see how players react to it.

P.S. Dark Trip is currently available in Early Access on the Meta Store, so if you want to experience all this with your own eyes and ears, now’s the perfect time.
The game is also preparing for release on Steam

Some time ago, my colleague posted an overview of another update for our game Dark Trip.

Overall, the response was positive, but readers had quite a few questions. So, as one of the game’s developers, I decided to write a separate post explaining how this level was actually created, what the author was trying to convey, and what the final result turned out to be. Hopefully, this short story will answer some of the questions raised in that review.

So, imagine you’re an indie developer and you need to create a new level for your game. And this level has to be the cab of an old steam locomotive — except it’s not a train simulator, but part of a psychedelic trip. According to the available videos online, a real steam locomotive takes an incredibly long, technical, and rather tedious process to start. But your job is to surprise the player in a dynamic and accessible way — especially after they’ve already gone through a Hellraiser-style room, a BDSM laboratory, a psychedelic train station, and the bedroom of a mad little girl.

So where do you even begin?

I started by taking a locomotive cab model, opening it in a 3D editor, and trying to figure out what kind of atmosphere I wanted to create inside it. What interesting elements should be added? What should the player do, and what shouldn’t they do? What simple yet unconventional actions should they perform?

At first, I tried building a classic locomotive cab inspired by countless reference photos from the internet: wooden walls, a cast-iron boiler, copper pipes, greasy floors, tons of gauges and valves. But all of it felt bulky and painfully ordinary. Like one of those “annoy the player for their own money” simulators.

Honestly, I spent a very long time experimenting, rotating the cab model around, trying to invent something unexpected. Eventually, the idea was born that the player is actually inside the belly of a gigantic black creature. After that, everything started falling into place much more naturally. The walls became dense living flesh, the inner partitions transformed into a skeletal framework, and the boiler turned into a black Kraken with pipe-like tentacles, feeding the locomotive-monster with fiery energy.

Purely for visual balance, I installed a pair of screens on both sides of the cab. To make them feel more alive, I added scrolling text and a bluish glow similar to old CRT televisions. The screens looked beautiful, but it was completely unclear why they were there or what the player was supposed to do with them. Then I thought: why not make them external observation screens? And naturally, controlling them required huge handles and valves — this is steampunk, not Arduino with tiny little buttons!

In the end, almost everything was finished. But one element still felt unnecessary: a large and beautiful pressure gauge. With it, the scene felt awkward. Without it, the scene felt empty. So what could replace it? A globe! For navigation! Although it took quite a bit of experimentation and brainstorming to make its controls intuitive, comfortable, and justified from a game design perspective.

While designing the cab, I constantly remembered some old VR game where one of the levels required you to start a diesel submarine. The place felt cramped, surrounded by piles of incomprehensible pipes and valves, while your imagination practically filled the room with the smell of diesel fuel. I desperately wanted to avoid that atmosphere.

To keep the cab from becoming overloaded, I added a magical lantern that sequentially illuminates the “present, past, and future.” In each lantern mode, only certain objects appear in the scene — objects the player must either find or interact with. This both simplified the scene visually and made the story feel more mysterious and intriguing.

And finally — the “under the pills” mode.

If you don’t already know, every location in Dark Trip can be completed either in its normal state or while “under the pills,” which allow the player to see things hidden from ordinary perception. In many cases, not only the visuals change, but the functionality of the level changes as well. Usually, it becomes strange, slightly disturbing, and insane — like a hallucination. But remember: the pills are NOT drugs. Don’t forget that!

In this particular case, I didn’t have to struggle much with the “under the pills” visuals, because the cab already resembled the insides of some mysterious beast. I only had to reinforce the feeling: veins and arteries spread across the walls, while a blazing heart appeared inside the furnace — the life source of the old Locomotive. To intensify the surreal atmosphere and increase the contrast with the sober state, I added pulsating pipes and a beating heart to the “under the pills” mode. And of course, a creepy ambient soundscape — because how could you possibly do without it?

During the early stages of development, the transition between the sober state and the “under the pills” mode was very abrupt. Now I try to make every transition smooth: smooth lighting changes, smooth texture blending, smooth geometry transformations, smooth animation transitions, and so on. Technically, this isn’t always easy and doesn’t always work perfectly, but I’m working on it! 🙂

In the end, it became what it became. And the players are happy!

P.S. By the way, our game Dark Trip is currently available in Early Access on the Meta Store, and a demo version will soon be available on Steam

We’re looking forward to your installs, wishlists, reviews, and comments!

Some time ago, my colleague posted an overview of another update for our game Dark Trip.

Overall, the response was positive, but readers had quite a few questions. So, as one of the game’s developers, I decided to write a separate post explaining how this level was actually created, what the author was trying to convey, and what the final result turned out to be. Hopefully, this short story will answer some of the questions raised in that review.

So, imagine you’re an indie developer and you need to create a new level for your game. And this level has to be the cab of an old steam locomotive — except it’s not a train simulator, but part of a psychedelic trip. According to the available videos online, a real steam locomotive takes an incredibly long, technical, and rather tedious process to start. But your job is to surprise the player in a dynamic and accessible way — especially after they’ve already gone through a Hellraiser-style room, a BDSM laboratory, a psychedelic train station, and the bedroom of a mad little girl.

So where do you even begin?

I started by taking a locomotive cab model, opening it in a 3D editor, and trying to figure out what kind of atmosphere I wanted to create inside it. What interesting elements should be added? What should the player do, and what shouldn’t they do? What simple yet unconventional actions should they perform?

At first, I tried building a classic locomotive cab inspired by countless reference photos from the internet: wooden walls, a cast-iron boiler, copper pipes, greasy floors, tons of gauges and valves. But all of it felt bulky and painfully ordinary. Like one of those “annoy the player for their own money” simulators.

Honestly, I spent a very long time experimenting, rotating the cab model around, trying to invent something unexpected. Eventually, the idea was born that the player is actually inside the belly of a gigantic black creature. After that, everything started falling into place much more naturally. The walls became dense living flesh, the inner partitions transformed into a skeletal framework, and the boiler turned into a black Kraken with pipe-like tentacles, feeding the locomotive-monster with fiery energy.

Purely for visual balance, I installed a pair of screens on both sides of the cab. To make them feel more alive, I added scrolling text and a bluish glow similar to old CRT televisions. The screens looked beautiful, but it was completely unclear why they were there or what the player was supposed to do with them. Then I thought: why not make them external observation screens? And naturally, controlling them required huge handles and valves — this is steampunk, not Arduino with tiny little buttons!

In the end, almost everything was finished. But one element still felt unnecessary: a large and beautiful pressure gauge. With it, the scene felt awkward. Without it, the scene felt empty. So what could replace it? A globe! For navigation! Although it took quite a bit of experimentation and brainstorming to make its controls intuitive, comfortable, and justified from a game design perspective.

While designing the cab, I constantly remembered some old VR game where one of the levels required you to start a diesel submarine. The place felt cramped, surrounded by piles of incomprehensible pipes and valves, while your imagination practically filled the room with the smell of diesel fuel. I desperately wanted to avoid that atmosphere.

To keep the cab from becoming overloaded, I added a magical lantern that sequentially illuminates the “present, past, and future.” In each lantern mode, only certain objects appear in the scene — objects the player must either find or interact with. This both simplified the scene visually and made the story feel more mysterious and intriguing.

And finally — the “under the pills” mode.

If you don’t already know, every location in Dark Trip can be completed either in its normal state or while “under the pills,” which allow the player to see things hidden from ordinary perception. In many cases, not only the visuals change, but the functionality of the level changes as well. Usually, it becomes strange, slightly disturbing, and insane — like a hallucination. But remember: the pills are NOT drugs. Don’t forget that!

In this particular case, I didn’t have to struggle much with the “under the pills” visuals, because the cab already resembled the insides of some mysterious beast. I only had to reinforce the feeling: veins and arteries spread across the walls, while a blazing heart appeared inside the furnace — the life source of the old Locomotive. To intensify the surreal atmosphere and increase the contrast with the sober state, I added pulsating pipes and a beating heart to the “under the pills” mode. And of course, a creepy ambient soundscape — because how could you possibly do without it?

During the early stages of development, the transition between the sober state and the “under the pills” mode was very abrupt. Now I try to make every transition smooth: smooth lighting changes, smooth texture blending, smooth geometry transformations, smooth animation transitions, and so on. Technically, this isn’t always easy and doesn’t always work perfectly, but I’m working on it!

In the end, it became what it became. And the players are happy!

P.S. By the way, our game Dark Trip is currently available in Early Access on the Meta Store, and a demo version will soon be available on Steam

We’re looking forward to your installs, wishlists, reviews, and comments!