SUDDEN
DEAFNESS
A first-person action game exploring sound-based gameplay mechanics.
Ever since that moment, when the towering flowers fell from the sky and burst open with clouds of pollen, all living things have been cursed.
Cursed by sound.
Decibels, once a neutral unit of measurement, have become an indicator of danger. Any loud noise can now unravel your sanity.
You play as a survivor in a post-silence apocalypse. After the Silence-Maddened overruns your shelter, you must use the curse of sound itself to fight back against the enemies that remain—and find a way to escape.
Your hometown has fallen.
Shrill sound will be your weapon
Or your demise.
Gameplay
The player must constantly monitor the ambient decibel level, as sound threatens their survival. At the same time, they must tactically utilize objects in the environment—and the sounds those objects produce—to attack enemies and stay alive.
Design Goals
This is an action game themed around sudden sensorineural hearing loss, designed to explore the gameplay potential of sound as an interactive mechanic. The core idea is to allow players to engage with sound not just as an effect, but as a gameplay system.
Both combat and exploration are centered around sound. Players must be aware of the noise levels in different environments and protect their hearing. At the same time, every enemy in the game shares a common weakness: fear of loud noise. By leveraging sound as a weapon, players can gain the upper hand in battles and survive in a world where silence is safety and sound is power.
Design Challenge
As my first original game and an experiment in innovative gameplay, integrating the concept of volume into the technical and design systems presented a significant challenge.
On the technical side, I used Unity’s 3D audio sources and converted audio intensity into decibel values, creating a readable in-game metric that determines the threat level of sound. This allowed for a clear and intuitive system where players can judge how dangerous a given sound is in real time.
From a design perspective, I created a variety of interactive objects that serve both as weapons and as sonic tools. Each object was carefully designed not just for damage potential, but also for the unique sounds it produces, which can be used to distract or manipulate enemies. In this way, every weapon is not just a “stick with stats,” but a distinct sound-based tool with its own interaction mechanics—a weapon of noise.
Reference
Game Mechanics
Auditory Sanity:
Exposure to environments exceeding 75 decibels will reduce the player’s auditory sanity. When auditory sanity is depleted, the player enters a dazed state and begins to lose health.
Auditory sanity recovers slowly when the player is in a quieter environment.
Decibel Meter:
Displayed on the HUD, the decibel meter shows the current ambient noise level in the player’s environment.
Hearing Protection:
The player can perform an action to cover their ears, increasing resistance to piercing or high-volume sounds.
Weapon Overview
Design Process
In the winter of 2022, I was diagnosed with sudden sensorineural hearing loss in my right ear.
This condition gave me a deeply personal and unfamiliar perspective on sound. I could no longer hear clearly on one side, and sharp or loud noises would cause sharp pain in my right ear.
But this misfortune also became the creative spark for my first solo game project.
Inspired by the idea of sound as damage, I began designing a core gameplay system built around combat through sound. I created a fictional world to support this concept, along with enemies and a diverse set of sound-based weapons.
As a demo-length prototype, my goal was to craft a polished introduction to the game’s mechanics, focusing on helping players adapt to the sound-based gameplay and learn how to survive.
Drawing inspiration from the Fallout series, I designed the setting as a subterranean shelter invaded by cultists, and built a level that captures the moment of its downfall.
Players experience the world alongside the protagonist—from a place of confusion and fear—learning, step by step, how to navigate the dangers of this cursed reality.
Due to my love for action games and my preference for using controllers, I implemented both gamepad and keyboard/mouse control schemes for the game.
Finally, with my background as a UI/UX designer, I developed a custom interface system that helps players interact intuitively with the game’s relatively complex mechanics.