Unfamiliar
A third-person horror-stealth game exploring a child's fear of the unknown. Navigate your siblings' rooms, avoid toy-monster enemies, and recover the pieces of your missing teddy bear.
At a glance
8
Team size
6 + Boss
Enemies
4
Levels
PC
Platform
Poster
Gameplay footage
Overview
Unfamiliar was developed as a university team project at Brock University under the studio name Gremlin Games. Eight developers built the full game — design, art, and code — over a semester.
The game centres on Alex, a child who sneaks through siblings' rooms to recover pieces of a missing teddy bear. Each room is populated by grotesque toy-monster enemies: corrupted dolls, telephone cars, yo-yo trolls, and stuffed animals brought to life.
I served in a dual role as Producer and Programmer — coordinating the team across all departments while directly building core gameplay systems, utility scripts, and contributing to AI.
Boss
The final boss is a massive corrupted toy that serves as the culmination of Alex's fear. It cannot be harmed until all three teddy bear pieces have been recovered and reattached — forcing the player to complete the full stealth gauntlet before the confrontation begins. Once vulnerable, the boss tests everything learned across the four levels.
Enemy concepts
Enemy designs by the Gremlin Games art team. Phillip implemented the AI behaviour for one enemy type and contributed to the modular AI architecture.
HUD assets
Two of the core HUD elements I helped implement — the Fear/Bravery bar that governs Alex's emotional state throughout each level, and the teddy piece tracker that shows which collectible parts have been recovered.
The bar runs from a tragedy mask (high fear) to a crowned comedy mask (full bravery). Fear rises when detected by enemies; bravery is earned by defeating them.
The teddy piece tracker displays the three collectible parts — button eye, paw, and leg — that Alex must recover across the levels to unlock the final boss.
What I built
Utility scripts
Built a suite of reusable utility scripts used across the project: UI controllers, pickup and collectible systems, checkpoint logic, popup and notification handlers, VFX setup, cutscene triggers, and scene management.
Level manager
Designed and implemented the level manager — handling scene transitions, level state persistence, and progression tracking across all four levels.
AI contribution
Collaborated on the modular AI architecture and directly implemented the full behaviour system for one enemy type — patrol, detection, chase, and idle states.
Fear / Bravery system
Fear builds when the player is detected or fails a stealth check. At high fear, the player moves faster but deals less damage. Bravery is earned by defeating powerful enemies and briefly grants boosted damage and a one-hit death save.