ARTSEC Research Facility [in-development]

[mac_deth]

Hey everyone, I started this solo project in May 2024 and I think I’ve made enough progress now to start sharing. Let me know what you think!

The game’s main feature is the usage of commonly used real-life laboratory equipment and procedures, including simplified representations of data acquisition software. (Nobody will need a Phd to play this.)

Premise:

The story takes place in 1997. The ARTSEC Research Facility investigates mysterious objects of unknown origin, which have been discovered in a cave system on the remote tropical island of Isla Sombra.

Those objects are referred to as ‘Artifacts’ and their composition and effects don’t match the current understanding of science. They are geological objects, akin to rocks and crystals.
They react aggressively when coming into direct contact with organisms, triggering dangerous effects that can range from nausea and mania to genetic alteration and, in most cases, death.

The game takes a common sci-fi trope but explores how real scientists in real laboratories would test and analyze unknown materials. The lab equipment, machines and instruments used in game are modeled after their real life counterparts, both visually and in function.

You start as Dr. Phelps, a potential new hire for the facility who will have to prove himself before getting officially hired. Make a good impression on your first days, meet seven distinct (and soon to be fully voiced) characters - and try not to lose your mind.

ARTSEC Development Preview [September 2025]

Current project stage:
Getting all characters voiced and animated

What’s left:

• Completing the character animations and cutscenes
• Adding the final map and additional story content
• Tweaking/Balancing and a little bit of polish

If everything goes well, this might be ready for release in Summer 2026. Regardless of how this will end, this has been quite the journey for me. It’s my first game and I only started this out of curiosity and because I wanted to learn something new - I really didn’t expect this to go anywhere, so I’m fairly excited to get this out there

[Frozen_Fried]

Is there chemistry tools available?
Can I make tri nitric toluene?
(Just kidding)
The game looks sick!!!
Watched the full video,feels like watching an animated movie ! So awesome !

[dragonforge-dev]

This looks really good! I highly recommend a demo so people can try it. For myself, if the story was good and it wasn’t too tedious, I would possibly play this. I do have nightmares about 12 hour shifts staring at an oscilloscope though so it may not be the game for me. Still, as a game it looks great! Very detailed.

[mac_deth]

I was planning on having a play test version available at some point.

Not sure when, though. There are still lots of bits and pieces that need to be properly tied together and some other things I want to get done first. Thank you for the feedback so far, it is appreciated.

[mac_deth]

The last couple days I was busy with the ‘big re-texturing’, replacing a lot of placeholder textures, materials and played with some different WorldEnvironment settings.

Currently, I’m working on more story content, mainly the dream sequences that will represent Phelps’ descent into madness. I’m going for something unsettling and symbolic.

So far, 3 out of 8 characters are fully voiced now - 4 more recording sessions are scheduled for next week. I’ll try to post a character showcase once I’m done with the animations and such.

[mac_deth]

With half of the cast animated, I’m currently working on the many cutscenes of the game. Here’s a little preview:

ARTSEC Development - Cutscenes Preview

Still have to tweak some things, like audio levels, camera angles and lighting. For the setup I use global signals to trigger animations and sounds. The camera and subtitles are controlled by a separate AnimationPlayer, while the character’s animations are handled by their AnimationTrees.

Since the characters all have unique animations for their lines, I have the animations firing as one-shots in their respective AnimationTrees (which was a minor pain to setup).

[mac_deth]

Small update:

Phelps can now finally speak and will comment on a variety of object interactions and the quality of submitted experiment data. This will be an additional way of providing feedback to the player regarding their work in the laboratories.

I was also browsing through my old blender files from when I started the project - putting those models side by side and looking at the progress I made within only a couple of months surely was a confidence boost.

Given enough time and effort, everyone can learn any skill (being stubborn helps, too )

[Frozen_Fried]

Can we cook chemicals xD

[mac_deth]

The past two weeks have been rather productive. And eventful, because I messed up some code and ended up creating ten thousands of orphan nodes, causing a nasty memory leak. Thankfully, that issue was resolved quickly. Lessons learned, I guess

One of the mid-game systems, the Facility Intranet, has been completely overhauled. I’m not a good interface designer, but I was thinking that my previous attempt was kinda bland and generally not looking interesting. So I decided to change the design and functionality completely.

The new design is based on the “UNIX” system from Jurassic Park (which in itself was based on a 3D File Navigator from Silicon Graphics, from what I’ve read).

For my design, I decided to go with a different color scheme and added some additional features. This system will be used to read mail, run data acquisition programs, request samples and buy equipment for the laboratory. It was bothering me for a while, I’m glad this chapter is now finally over

Also, I reworked the intro entirely, changing some textures, animations and light effects that I was not happy with. Some previously missing scenes have been now added as well. But, after a lot of work, this is also another chapter finally closed. Things start to move fast now.

@Frozen_Fried

Can we cook chemicals xD

The chemistry setup is very basic, but yes you can boil some materials (and have it blow up in your face, too). But if you’re talking Walter White levels of cooking, then the answer is sadly ‘no’

I will have to take the time, sit down and record some actual gameplay and show off the labs proper, because that has been done for a while now and I only showed glimpses of it so far.

[Frozen_Fried]

I am going with Jesse Pinkman level of cooking :>

Okey,jokes aside the game looks and sounds awesome!

Keep us updated.

Make sure to make a orphan house for those orphan nodes xD

[mac_deth]

I’m not good with this kind of stuff, but I decided it’s time to make a quick video where I briefly explain the core of the game, showing off the laboratories and some gameplay mechanics.

ARTSEC Gameplay Overview

[Frozen_Fried]

Woo Whoo Who! That feels great ! I never played a game like this but I feel like it’s gonna be cool !

it feels like it’s full of mystery!

how long will be the gameplay ? and are you using gdscript or c#?

That feels like a movie tbh!

[mac_deth]

I’m using gdscript. The game itself is going to be short - I’d be surprised if it even reaches the 6 hour mark. Will do some playtesting soon to get a better feel for the progression. I am currently still busy in the depths of the blender mines, with all the animation work I have to do (about two-thirds through the story stuff now).

[mac_deth]

I’m taking a break from the godot-mines to deliver a little update .

I’ve been very focused on finishing up with the story- and endgame content, where the player will be switching to the other protagonist, Sergeant Dunwell. Compared to Phelps’ laboratory gameplay, her content is much shorter and very casual, kinda similar to a walking-sim/visual novel game.

While playing as Dunwell, the story will lead the player to various places in- and outside of the facility as she tries to find a killer and two missing colleagues. With the character switch, new mechanics get introduced: Nightvision and a Tracking Mode, features designed to aid the player in completing Dunwell’s objective. I also replaced the old status and item icons in the HUD with new ones (here an example from Dunwell’s HUD):

In order to make proper use of her abilities, I reworked the jungle level from scratch. It’s not really a huge map, but it is now much denser, darker and almost a little claustrophobic in certain areas. Be careful not to get lost in the dark, winding paths (I sure got turned around quite a bit while testing the map myself, so I guess it works as intended)

I had a blast working on this, especially the cutscenes. By far my favorite part of the game, even though it is rather short. Since one of the inspirations for Dunwell’s character is Robert Muldoon from Jurassic Park, I tried to give this sequence a fairly similar vibe.

(Who knows, maybe you’ll even find a little easter egg in a dark corner of the jungle )

This is my last update for this month, I wish you all amazing holidays and a happy new year!

[mac_deth]

Dropping the first update of the new year:

I am one cutscene and gameplay section away from finishing the game, which honestly feels very weird after working on it for about 1,5 years

Another thing I can scratch off my list: The nightmares, which are now all done, too. There are 7 dreams total - very short sequences that reflect Phelps’ state of mind. I’m keeping it simple and symbolic, maybe a bit weird. Some animations might even look a tad silly (I’m not a pro), but I’m rolling with what I’ve got now.

After I’m done with the content, I will have to do some audio polishing, because lots of SFX are in need of a rework. When I started this, I just downloaded MP3 files and used those without thinking much about it - but from what I’ve read so far, OGG format might be the better option due to better file compression/quality.

There are still some things on my to-do list, I’ll keep you posted

[mac_deth]

All content is now finished, currently working on some little details and playtesting

Got the music sorted out, too. Composer is Eric Matyas (soundimage.org). Bought his music pack and used some of the tracks for the ambient music. He’s going to make custom tracks for some select cutscenes as well. Here’s a short sample for the ambient music:

ARTSEC soundtrack sample

I changed / added some other things as well:

• Removed manual save in favor of using checkpoints, as a short game like this really hasn’t a need for manual saving.
• Removed the last remaining placeholder textures
• Reworked HUD a little
• Added some background NPCs
• Some characters can now be met in other than their default places, depending on time of day
• Added a new hallucination event
• Phelps will randomly say weird things as his madness progresses
• Added credits
• Added death scene/game over screen for Dunwell
• Added / Changed Handbook entries for when player switches characters
• fixed various bugs and other small adjustments

There are also some additions regarding the accident/injury mechanic:

• Added new status icons for injured/medicated player state
• Added medical vending machine for buying treatment
• Treatment will not get rid of the injury, but negate its effects for a day
• Causing an accident while already injured will result in a Game Over

Not much left to do other than playtesting and adjusting some things depending on how it plays.

And then there is the final boss: Bureaucracy