Brew below

Studio: Knights of the Island

Role: Lead Director, Animator, Gameplay Designer

Project Summary: Brew Below is a survival-horror game created for Scream Jam 2025. Players are trapped in a dungeon, tasked with brewing potions for a mysterious figure behind a grate, racing to meet their quota while trying to survive. The game combines the 2D art style used in Wyshbound with a 3D environment to craft an immersive and eerie experience. Environmental and audio design work together to keep players on edge, ensuring that every decision feels tense and consequential.

Responsibilities:

  • Concepted the core gameplay flow, defining how player input, movement, and resource management interact within a confined space.

  • Designed monsters and NPC characters with behaviors tailored to the limited environment, creating dynamic threats that respond to player actions.

  • Built a persistent sense of unease through environmental design, sound cues, and enemy behavior, encouraging players to second-guess their strategies and make mistakes that heighten tension.

  • Developed animations and interactions that reinforced the horror and survival mechanics, ensuring consistent visual language throughout the dungeon.

  • Iterated on level layout and monster placement to balance challenge, pacing, and player engagement.

Accolades: Placed 23rd overall in Scream Jam 2025

Engine: Unity

Core Design Pillars

Stress Through Responsibility

Tension is driven by task saturation, not scripted scares.

Players must:

  • Memorize potion recipes

  • Manage escalating production quotas

  • Monitor environmental threats

  • Adapt instantly under pressure

The horror emerges from divided attention and forced prioritization.

Scalable Complexity

The brewing system was structured to create natural mechanical escalation.

Early Game

  • Small quotas

  • 3-ingredient potions

  • Space to learn systems

Mid/Late Game

  • Increased quotas

  • Complex potions (simple potion + 2 additional ingredients)

  • Recipe memorization becomes critical

This structure reinforces mastery while increasing cognitive load.

Systems Design: Brewing as Counterplay

Early testing used a “spot-the-monster” interaction model.
This reduced risk and separated horror from the core gameplay loop.

We pivoted to a systemic solution:

  • Each monster requires a specific potion to repel.

  • Potions must be crafted and physically thrown.

  • Some threats require complex recipes.

Result:

  • Monsters directly intersect with potion production.

  • Players must interrupt immediate task to address increasing threats.

  • Brewing remains central to both progression and survival.

The system reinforces itself instead of fragmenting gameplay.

Enemy Design Philosophy

Enemies were built to complement spatial limitation and visibility constraints.

Because players are constantly:

  • Rotating camera

  • Checking recipe book

  • Managing ingredient stations

We designed threats that:

  • Hide within environmental negative space

  • Relocate during light flickers

  • Pressure awareness rather than trigger jump scares

Movement Solution

Due to jam scope limitations, full animation pipelines were reduced.
Instead, monsters relocate during light flickers.

This:

  • Increased paranoia

  • Forced scanning behavior

  • Reduced production overhead

  • Improved psychological impact

A constraint-driven design choice that enhanced the experience.

Encounter Design Breakdown

Spindle - Overhead Threat

  • Attacks from above

  • Audio cue: distorted sleigh-bell tones

  • Visibility through high shutters

  • Movement speed scales per level

Purpose: Introduces vertical scanning and audio tracking.

Wretchy - Ground Ambush

  • Emerges from sewer grate

  • Easily overlooked origin point

  • Requires complex potions

Purpose: Punishes tunnel vision and introduces threat prioritization.

Skooze - Unpredictable Variable

  • Traverses ceiling and floor

  • Mix of obvious and subtle telegraphs

  • Forces high-frequency environmental scanning

Purpose: Disrupts pattern recognition and increases cognitive strain.

Environmental Design

The dungeon was designed to feel antagonistic.

Key elements:

  • Low visibility

  • Oscillating light source

  • Ingredient silhouettes blending during light swings

When lighting shifts:

  • Ingredient readability drops

  • Memory replaces visual clarity

  • Stress compounds naturally

The “boss” remains unseen except for a pair of eyes behind a grate.
No exposition. No safety. Only surveillance.

Production Scope & Key Takeaways

Brew Below was developed in one week for Scream Jam 2025, placing 23rd out of 900+ entries. Working within a compressed production timeline required deliberate scope management and rapid iteration.

As Lead Director, I defined the core design pillars early, ensured all mechanics reinforced the central stress loop, and aligned audio, enemy behavior, and environmental systems toward a cohesive horror experience. Time constraints required creative solutions, such as using light flickers instead of full animation pipelines, which ultimately strengthened the psychological tension of the game.

This project reinforced several key design principles:

  • Tension is most effective when embedded in the core gameplay loop rather than layered on top.

  • Cognitive overload and task saturation can drive horror as effectively as direct pursuit mechanics.

  • Production limitations can enhance design when leveraged intentionally.

  • Clear systemic counterplay strengthens player agency even in high-stress scenarios.