Watch The Forgotten Hollow

Forgotten Hollow

The Forgotten Hollow is a short horror experience where you play as someone trapped in an unsettling abandoned town. The goal was to create something tense and atmospheric—less about jump scares and more about slow-building dread. You explore, find keys, solve simple puzzles, and try to avoid whatever's lurking in the dark.

I kept the scope small since I was working alone, focusing on mood rather than complex mechanics. The sanity system was my favorite part—the longer you stay in dangerous areas, the more your vision distorts, making it harder to tell what's real.

My Role (Or Lack Thereof)

Since this was a solo project, I did everything—coding, design, placeholder art (until I realized my modeling skills were… lacking), and even some sound tweaking. My strengths are in programming, so the movement, interactions, and AI behaviors were solid, but the game design side was rougher. I had to cut a lot of ideas because they either didn't fit or were too ambitious for one person.

What Went Wrong

• Animations Took Forever – I got stuck tweaking the player's movement and interactions way too early. Should've just blocked things out first and polished later.
• Level Design Wasn't Scary Enough – Turns out making a good horror environment is hard when you're not an artist. My gray-boxed buildings just looked sad, not eerie.
• Too Many Half-Finished Ideas – At one point, I tried adding a crafting system before realizing it didn't actually make the game scarier. Oops.

Why I Stopped Working on It

Honestly? I hit a wall with the visuals. I'm not a 3D artist, and the game needed better models, lighting, and environmental storytelling to really work. I could've kept grinding, but it felt like the wrong use of time—I'd rather take what I learned and apply it to something more achievable.