GAME OVERVIEW

Phantom Clearance Büro (PCB) is a third-person horror-action RPG set in a dark fantasy world, 21 years after a pivotal celestial war reshaped everything. The player is Ragnar — a 17-year-old new recruit to PCB, the organisation tasked with clearing corrupted phantom entities threatening the last surviving city.

The central design question: can horror and action RPG coexist without one undermining the other? Horror requires the player to feel vulnerable. Action RPG requires the player to feel powerful. These philosophies are in direct opposition. PCB proposes a third path — systemic mechanics that sustain both simultaneously.

GAME DESIGN

PCB's design is built on one central insight: power has consequences. The more aggressively the player fights, the more visible they become to the world. Every attack generates sound. Every injury generates blood scent. The world watches, listens, and smells what the player does.

NARRATIVE DESIGN

Every mechanic in PCB has a narrative reason to exist. The Sound Threshold exists because phantoms were beings with heightened senses in life. The Blood Threshold exists because corrupted Nefarian spirits are drawn irresistibly to the scent of pure blood. Narrative and design are the same thing.

THE WORLD

The world was created balanced — like a yin and yang. The division between Aeloria and Nefara is not simply good vs evil — it is a structural injustice built into the fabric of the world. To be born Nefaran is to be considered evil by definition.

DIANA'S SACRIFICE

Diana — Angel of the Heart — was sent by the celestial order as a gift. She bore a child, Amaris, whose prophesied destiny was Vargoth's death. In the war that followed, Diana sacrificed everything — casting the Shield of Aegis, a permanent barrier sealing the Forest of Lamora. It cost her life. It tore off Vargoth's arm. It saved the survivors.

"Be a good kid. Do what you love. Your mother will always be with you in your heart." — Diana's final words to Amaris

CHARACTERS

SCREENPLAY — KEY SCENES

The game's narrative is established through a 20-scene screenplay covering the backstory 21 years before the game begins.

NARRATIVE THEMES

THEORETICAL FOUNDATION

The thesis applies the MDA Framework (Hunicke, LeBlanc, Zubek, 2004) as its primary analytical and design tool — formal language for understanding why horror-action hybrids consistently fail.

GAME CONCEPT

Rick's Factory is part of a larger project called Toy's Journey. The player controls Niko — a sentient toy who has escaped Rick's Factory, a place where toys are manufactured, modified, and discarded.

The core design concept: modular identity. Niko can swap animal body parts to fundamentally change how they move and fight. This is not cosmetic — each configuration creates a genuinely different playstyle, movement set, and combat rhythm. The player builds their Niko rather than choosing a class.

GAMEPLAY FOOTAGE

Prototype gameplay — modular body part system, combat, soft lock-on targeting, and character locomotion in Unreal Engine 5.

BODY PART SWAP SYSTEM

The central mechanic. Each animal configuration completely transforms the gameplay experience — not just stat changes but different animations, different movement physics, different combat approaches.

Future configurations planned: Eagle (ranged/aerial), Bear (defensive/counter), Cheetah (stealth/dash). Each adds a new dimension to combat and movement possibilities.

GAMEPLAY DESIGN

WORLD & STORY

Rick's Factory exists within Toy's Journey — a larger world where toys are sentient beings manufactured in industrial facilities, used, and discarded when broken or obsolete. Rick is the factory owner — the primary antagonist — who views toys as products, not beings.

Niko is a defective toy — one who became self-aware before completion. Rather than being recycled, Niko escaped the factory floor. The modular body-part mechanic has a direct narrative reason: Niko was never finished. They can still add, swap, and modify their own body from salvaged parts.

TECHNICAL IMPLEMENTATION

Built entirely in Unreal Engine 5 using Blueprints. Solo development from concept to playable prototype — all systems designed, implemented, and tested by one person.