Last update June 30th, 2025

GENERAL INFO

Project: Hollow Coast

Game Engine: Unreal Engine 5.4

Genre: Action-Adventure

Number of players: Single Player

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocJ4R_DCQ3A&ab_channel=VanessaAguillarGonçalves

Level Concept Briefing

Following a catastrophic battle that left the capital in ruins, the player travels to the Hollow Coast, a desolate former port town now buried in ash and fog. The protagonist and their party are searching for a reclusive survivor who may hold knowledge of a forbidden memory craft, a system introduced here that allows players to revisit and unlock latent powers tied to past story events.

Graybox

Level Goals

• Present an engaging narrative in the game's setting, reflecting what led to the fall of the capital.
• Introduce the Memory Sigils mechanic, mysterious fragments found throughout the level in strategic positions that when interacting with them unlock ambient flashbacks and hidden gameplay effects.
• Offer a linear level that encourages emotional reflection, character development with puzzle interactions, few but meaningful combat encounters.
• Develop a level that can be reused throughout the game with different paths and narrative contexts, seeking to reduce work by reusing environment and props.

Narrative

High-ranking officials of the Hollow Coast government planned a secret experiment involving an ancestral ritual called Memory of the Sea, which would allow memories to be stored in physical objects, keeping those who had passed away "alive." The memories would be stored in robots or dolls that would simulate the physical body, while the memory fragment would act as the person's soul, preserving their stories eternally, even against the natural forgetting of time.

The city was secretly divided: on one side, those who defended the ritual to eternalize the memories of beloved ones; on the other, those who defended the natural course of life and its remembrances. When the second group discovered the ritual plans, they organized to stop it. The conflict culminated in a battle that devastated the city. Although they managed to interrupt the ritual, this caused the collapse of the line between memories and reality. Now, the city sinks into a cycle where past, present, and forgetting overlap like layers of fog. Everything that no one remembers anymore (cities, houses, faces, and even the ground) begins to disappear and becomes an impenetrable dense mist.

Curiously, the Hollow Coast Lighthouse is one of the few things that still work in the city and allows the region to remain in the memory of those who remained, thus keeping it "alive" and habitable. In Chapter 4, the protagonist and their friends search for the lighthouse keeper Kuroto, one of the few people who still inhabit the city and who could be a fundamental piece in discovering how to recover the memories and maybe restore the city.

Hollow Coast Ambientation

• Japanese port city in ruins, covered in ash and fog.
• The city's name comes from the numerous caves that formed along the coast due to the movement of sea waves over the years.