GAME DESIGN ART INSTALLATION



Team Project: 
Design&Visual - Xinwei Li | Programming: Lujia Chen

Date: 
03.2025

Made in Unity，Procreate，Photoshop




Game Design Project | Genre: Digital Game, Puzzle, Narrative

Academy of Shadows is a point-and-click adventure where you play a transfer student entering a school full of eerie, puppet-like classmates. Search your dorm and the campus for clues, outsmart the watchful dorm supervisor, and uncover the school’s chilling secret.

This dark, suspenseful story challenges players to reflect on the cost of exam-driven, militarized education—and what happens when individuality is stripped away.

Starting Point: 
Game Inspiration:
The Dark Reality of YuZhang 
and The Shadows of Abusive Reform School 
YuZhang Academy and similar teen “correction” centers hide behind cheerful slogans, but survivors report humiliation, corporal punishment, and abuse.
Newcomers are stripped and locked in dark rooms, then subjected to daily verbal and physical mistreatment — in some cases, leading to death.

The Notion of
Educational involution 

Educational involution drives parents into an “education arms race,” raising costs and discouraging childbirth. It turns schooling into exam-focused training, stifles creativity, and puts harmful pressure on students’ physical and mental health.

Breakout: narrative-driven psychological
horror and escape game 

Inspired by Yuzhang Academy and Yang Yongxin’s electroshock therapy, Breakout shows a school where students are divided into tiers, with cliques helping staff abuse others. Life inside is ruled by fear and forced obedience, leaving survivors traumatized, injured, or worse.


Setting Sketch





The player begins in a dim, cramped dorm room.



Prologue:

Drawn in by the school’s alluring campaign, they enroll expecting perfection—only to be knocked unconscious with an electric baton on the first day and locked up under the guise of “training willpower.
Player Mission 1: 
Escape Your Dormitory
Puzzle Gameplay sketch


      Items: Heart-shaped card, 5 scarf fragments, correction tape, 
      malleable doll
      Tips: Card and tape are picked up directly; scarf fragments and doll need interaction
      How to Obtain:
      Scarf Fragments: Climb bunk bed and use clothes hanger
      Malleable Doll: Talk to designated NPC



    Art Style & References
    Character & Environment Iteration


    The overall style aims to be dark, surreal, and symbolic—supporting the game's themes of fear, conformity, and loss of self.

    Opening Animatic
    In-Game Scenes & UI Design

    Game Flow


    Code Sample

    This part of the Unity code implements a drag-and-drop control system

    Enemy Proximity VFX ShaderGraph & System