Project Huldra - Project image

Project Huldra

In Progress
Started: 2022-06-07
Unreal Engine 5
ZBrush
Substance Painter
Blender
Game

Project Huldra

  • Developer: Henrik Wilhelm Sissener
  • Platform: Unreal Engine 5
  • Status: Concept & Prototyping

Genre: Procedural Survival Horror
Project Summary

Project Huldra is a solo-developed survival horror game that plunges players into the eerie twilight of Norwegian folklore. As a personal exploration of both advanced game technology and national mythology, the project aims to deliver a tense, atmospheric, and highly replayable experience. Lost in a procedurally generated forest, the player has one simple goal: survive the night and escape. But the woods are the domain of the Huldra, a cunning supernatural entity that actively hunts the player through psychological manipulation and intelligent pursuit.

Key Features & Gameplay Vision

The experience is designed to be a short, high-stakes game of hide-and-seek where death is permanent and a new challenge awaits with every attempt.

  • The Procedural Forest: Explore a new, unpredictable forest with every playthrough. The procedurally generated world ensures that no two escape attempts are the same, demanding constant situational awareness.
  • The Cunning Huldra: Face an intelligent, non-scripted AI designed to be a true psychological threat. The Huldra will not just chase, but trick and mislead, using auditory illusions and environmental traps to lure the player deeper into the woods.
  • A Race Against Nightfall: The game begins at twilight, and as darkness falls, the danger escalates. The descending night acts as a natural timer, making the desperate search for a light source a critical and time-sensitive objective for survival.
  • Unforgiving Survival: A single mistake can be fatal. If the Huldra catches you, or the darkness consumes you, the game is over. Players will have to learn from their errors to devise successful strategies, whether that means a desperate flight to the edge of the woods or a terrifying attempt to hide and wait for morning.
  • Environmental Storytelling: While the primary goal is escape, the story of the forest and its previous victims is told wordlessly through notes and environmental clues left behind for the player to discover.

Technical & Creative Goals

As a solo project, Project Huldra is an opportunity to master cutting-edge tools and bring a personal vision to life.

  • Next-Gen Photorealism: The project is a deep dive into Unreal Engine 5, specifically leveraging Lumen for dynamic global illumination and Nanite for virtualized geometry. The goal is to create a hyper-realistic and immersive Nordic forest, populated with assets created from photogrammetry scans of actual Scandinavian flora.
  • Advanced AI Development: A core focus is the development of an adaptive AI that creates emergent, unpredictable gameplay. The aim is to move beyond simple "chase" mechanics and create a truly intelligent antagonist.
  • Cultural Authenticity: A key personal driver for this project is the desire to explore and digitally realize the rich, eerie folklore of my home country, Norway, and share its unique brand of horror with a wider audience.

The Huldra is the enigmatic heart and sovereign ruler of the forest, an ancient being of terrifying duality. To the lost and unwary, she appears as an ethereal fair maiden of exceptional beauty, her lithe form often veiled only by her long, flowing golden hair. This captivating appearance, however, is a masterfully crafted illusion to mask the monstrous truth she desperately hides: a coarse cow's tail, and a back that is a grotesque, hollowed-out mockery of a rotten tree trunk. A master of deception, she lures her victims deeper into her domain with seductive whispers and auditory tricks, her shrill laughter echoing through the trees as paths vanish and the woods twist into an unrecognizable labyrinth. She is a shapeshifter of immense and deceptive strength, commanding the forest's creatures and bending the very environment to her will, yet she is not invincible. This ancient entity recoils from the touch of cold steel and shuns the sanctified power of Christian symbols, offering a sliver of hope and a potential weapon for anyone clever enough to survive her hunt.