DESIGNER DIARY
HOME INVADER
Home Invader is a first-person stealth-horror experience where silence becomes your only weapon.
You break into a wealthy man’s isolated villa at night, but something about the place feels wrong the moment you step inside. Every floorboard creak, every drawer you open, every breath you take feeds into a noise system that reacts to your mistakes. The house listens, the darkness watches, and your only goal is simple: get in, steal what you need, and get out alive.
Built as an experiment in tension-based gameplay, Home Invader replaces traditional enemies with fear of the unknown. The environment itself becomes your threat — creaking wood, flickering lights, distant knocks, and unsettling ambience that makes you question if you’re alone.
It’s a slow-burn, anxiety-heavy game where the fear comes from what you hear, not what you see.
MY ROLES
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Game Designer
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Creative Director
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Level Designer
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UI/UX
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Sound Design & Music
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Narrative
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Gameplay Systems
RESPONSIBILITIES
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Designed core stealth loop and noise meter system
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Built levels using modular blockouts
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Created UI layouts and iconography
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Composed ambient soundscapes and SFX
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Wrote narrative beats and environmental storytelling
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Implemented enemy logic and triggers
MY DESIGN BREAKDOWN
Core Gameplay Systems
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Noise Meter
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Perfection Meter
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Block Rotation / Hidden Wall / Hidden Room
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Javed's Mansion
Additional Work
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Story and Timeline
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In-Game Documents
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Hanging Bodies / KanBan Death Board
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Computer UI and ChatUs
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Game UI / UX
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In-Game Cinematics
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In-Game Sounds and OST
1. Noise Meter
Noise Meter is the face of Home Invader.
The player invades the house of javed garohar but the catch is, every sound you make contributes to the noise meter. It works on a simple logic. Each object is defined by a certain +db amount. Like -
Door Open / Close = +5db, etc Though the noise meter increases constantly by adding db values. The decrease of the noise meter is using a gauge like system which upon being idle, constantly gets lower down by the value of 1. This helps in increasing the stakes of gameplay for the player. The Noise Meter is indicated using a Noise Bar as a part of the game’s HUD. The color denotes how high the bar has been filled up. Green Indicates safe zone, while Yellow indicates warning and Red indicates Danger Zone. Along with the bar being filled, the Narrator gives conditional warning to keep quiet. Upon the bar being full at 100, the house triggers a defensive alarm, waking up the security guard and getting the player caught.
The Following Image represents the use of noise meter during a puzzle solving
2. Perfection Meter
The Perfection Meter is an interaction system used to unlock doors, designed to introduce controlled tension through timing and precision. It operates as a left-to-right moving bar divided into three zones—Red, Yellow, and Green—requiring the player to align a central indicator precisely within the Green zone to successfully unlock the door.
Each zone carries a different consequence. Hitting Red immediately triggers an alarm, significantly increasing risk. Yellow represents imperfect execution, resulting in moderate to high noise generation. Only Green ensures a clean interaction, unlocking the door with minimal noise output.
This system transforms a simple interaction into a skill-based challenge, reinforcing the core stealth loop by directly linking player precision with in-game consequences.
The Following Image represents the use of perfection meter to unlock a door
Object Rotation / Hidden Walls / Hidden Door
The layout of the mansion was designed to encourage exploration and layered discovery, using interactive objects as keys to hidden spaces. Early in development, the challenge was not just placing important areas, but making them feel naturally concealed within the environment.
To solve this, I introduced hidden walls triggered through object interaction, turning environmental details into gameplay mechanics. These interactions require players to observe, interpret, and manipulate objects to reveal secret areas.
Three primary hidden rooms were designed:
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Security Room
Unlocked by rotating a two-piece emerald statue into a symmetrical alignment, triggering a hidden wall mechanism. -
Antique Room
Accessed by rotating an abstract painting. The artwork forms an inverted face, and aligning it correctly reveals the hidden passage. -
Torture Room
A multi-step unlock sequence designed to increase complexity.
Players must first activate a hidden library mechanism using a specific book, which reveals a secondary door. The final access requires locating a key to unlock the inner chamber.
The Following Image showcases the entire mansion's blueprint designed by Avneet Dhaka
Javed's Mansion
Level Design & Spatial Experience
Javed’s Mansion is built around a 3BHK residential layout, expanded with hidden and restricted spaces to support both gameplay progression and narrative depth. The environment is designed to feel grounded and believable, while subtly guiding player behavior through spatial design.
The primary layout includes:
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Main Bedroom – Personal space tied to Javed and Minakshi
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Infant Room – Emotionally driven storytelling space
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Guest Room – Transitional exploration area
These are complemented by specialized zones:
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Security Room – System control and high-risk area
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Artifact Room – Puzzle-driven interaction space
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Torture Room – Narrative payoff and high-intensity discovery
A restricted second floor serves as a narrative anchor, reinforcing hierarchy and control. Its inaccessibility builds curiosity and tension, positioning it as a forbidden space within the mansion.
Gameplay Impact
The layout is designed to directly influence movement, stealth, and player tension:
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Tight corridors and door placements create controlled navigation, forcing players to make deliberate movement decisions
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Room clustering increases the risk of noise accumulation, making traversal a strategic choice rather than free movement
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Hidden spaces reward observation while interrupting linear exploration, encouraging players to slow down and engage with the environment
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Layered access (locks, hidden walls, multi-step entry) introduces pacing, preventing players from accessing critical areas too early
The mansion functions not just as a setting, but as a system that shapes player behavior, reinforcing the core stealth loop.
Design Intent
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Ground the experience in a realistic, relatable layout
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Use space to create tension without direct threats
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Encourage slow, intentional exploration
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Embed narrative within the environment rather than relying on exposition
Role & Contribution
I was responsible for the complete environment creation, including layout design, 3D modeling, and texturing. The entire gameplay experience is built around this space, making it central to both interaction and storytelling.
The Following Image showcases the entire mansion's 3D Model designed by Avneet Dhaka
Javed's Mansion
The narrative and presentation of Home Invader are constructed through a layered combination of environmental storytelling, interactive systems, and audiovisual design, allowing the player to uncover the story organically rather than through direct exposition. The core story and timeline are revealed progressively through in-game documents, which provide fragmented insights into past events, encouraging players to piece together the narrative themselves.
Interactive systems such as the Computer UI and ChatUs act as controlled information gateways, delivering contextual story elements while maintaining player engagement through interaction. In parallel, visual storytelling elements like the Hanging Bodies and KanBan Death Board serve as immediate, non-verbal cues that reinforce the darker themes of the space and hint at prior events without explicit explanation.
This is supported by a carefully designed UI/UX system that balances clarity with immersion, ensuring players receive necessary information without breaking tension. Cinematics of the game's intro were created using Blender by me while Sound Design and original OST were designed using FL Studio and they play a critical role in building psychological pressure, guiding player emotion, and enhancing the overall atmosphere.
Together, these elements form a cohesive narrative system where story, interaction, and environment are tightly integrated, making discovery an active part of gameplay rather than a passive experience.