Philip Riley

Overview

Set aboard a deep space prison vessel, BRIG is a gritty third-person, action-survival game in which a mysterious prisoner known simply as 8896 embarks on a ruthless campaign for freedom. To make his escape, he must overcome the vessel’s murderous inmates and the trials of an unforgiving security system.

As producer on BRIG, I ran all team meetings and updated scrum-board tasks for twenty weeks. I ensured that the team worked well together, and encouraged open communication. We worked one full day per week, and shared lunch as a team. This assisted in good intrateam feedback and helped us rapidly develop many additional features to the game. Additionally, I managed the UDK Swarm network to greatly reduce Lightmass build times.

Technical Aspect

BRIG, the space asylum on which the game takes place, orbits a distant asteroid field isolated and largely forgotten by the colonized worlds. In its prime, BRIG was a state of the art prison ship, designed to contain the darkest products of humanity, but years of neglect and the trauma of deep space exposure have left this futuristic Alcatraz on the edge of disaster. During an unexpected power surge, the prison’s rigidly enforced order crumbles, and in the ensuing pandemonium, prisoner 8896 fights for survival and his last chance of escape.

With Prisoner 8896 as an avatar, players traverse an elaborate space asylum riddled with security traps and bloodthirsty inmates attempting to gain control of the ship. Each inmate, including Prisoner 8896, wears a security Lockdown Collar that strangles the subject if caught outside of designated safe zones called, herders, for any length of time. After seizing command of a Prisoner Control Unit, the security devices used by guards, Prisoner 8896 uses the device to overcome the dangers of the BRIG. By combating the inmates who attempt to subdue him, and by manipulating security systems with the Prisoner Control Unit, Prisoner 8896 embarks on a desperate attempt to reach escape pods located on the opposite end of the ship.

Designing the game required not only the main player assets and HUD, but also extensive AI elements. The programming team created AI packages that eschewed the standard NavPoints and respected the herders in-game.

Artistic Aspect

BRIG is a sci-fi horror game that uses a unique herder mechanic for the puzzle elements to create a suspenseful and intense experience. Players transverse BRIG from a 3rd person perspective, having the player camera pull back into 3rd person allows the player to see a larger view of the environment around them and use information the main character relays.

BRIG occurs on a military space vessel converted into an asylum for the criminally insane. As such, the environments reflect a form that follows function. Cold, hard steel with exposed piping and wires comprise the majority of the areas found in BRIG. Prisoner containment areas are very functional and lack any type of cosmetic treatment. Lab and medical areas show refinement and refurbishment.

BRIG conveys a sinister, cold, and foreboding art style that creates a terrifying atmosphere and a sense of paranoia for the player. BRIG’s gritty realism compliments additional art assets to tell a story to the player. Every piece of art in the game describes the section of the ship the player is in and the events that occurred before you arrived.

BRIG’s visual appearance is a menacing, dark, and extremely sinister style that conveys an urgent sense to escape at all costs.

Additional Game Play Screenshots

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