Twist Startup

Concept Overview

The PC game "Twist Startup" is a psychological horror game where, every time the player starts the game, elements such as the title screen, UI, BGM, and background subtly or drastically change. The player will be forced to question their own perception while continuously observing the strange changes in the game. This repeated gameplay creates both fear and an addictive quality.

Game System

1. Changes on Startup: The following elements change randomly or gradually every time the game is started.
   • Title logo font, color, and distortion
   • Menu screen UI layout, icons, and text corruption
   • Background image tone, noise, visual distortion, and appearance of creepy shadows
   • BGM and SE pitch, tempo, noise, dissonance, and intrusion of whispers
   • Performances where the player's name or part of saved data is rewritten
2. Exploration of Changes: The main purpose for the player is to carefully observe and discover what has changed. Since the game does not keep a log of changes, the player's memory and curiosity are driven forward.
3. Escalation of Fear: Initially, the changes are minor (color shifts, brief sound glitches), but as the player repeatedly starts the game, the changes become more distinct and eerie (distorted human silhouettes on the screen, appearance of incomprehensible text, intense noise).
4. Meta-narrative Elements: Once a certain amount of change has accumulated, the game may display meta-messages that directly address the player, or insert eerie performances that mimic the player's desktop environment (these do not affect the actual PC).

Horror Elements

• Psychological Erosion: The doubt about whether what the player perceives is real gradually erodes their mind.
• Unexplainable Phenomena: It provides a sense of fear by introducing eerie phenomena that cannot be logically explained, gradually infiltrating everyday life.
• Jump Scares (Limited): Occasionally, short and intense visual and auditory horror performances are inserted as the climax of the changes during startup.

Toxicity

A strong curiosity about "What will happen next time the game is launched?" and "How far will the changes escalate?" becomes the driving force that makes players repeatedly launch the game. The joy of discovering subtle changes and the accompanying sense of fear enhance the game's addictive nature.

Complex 3D models and AI are unnecessary; the game can be implemented primarily through replacing 2D UI assets, images, and sound files, along with simple scripts to control them.

By combining Unity's UI system with AssetBundle, efficient asset management and random generation can be implemented.

The story leaves a large portion to the player's imagination, and can express the world view with minimal text.

Platform

PC (Windows)