The Listener

Cinevva's analyzer read this game's design doc and its source, then wrote the brief below. "Make your own" hands it to the game creator as your opening message, so you start from a real spec rather than a one-line idea.

Create a first-person 3D stealth-horror exploration game titled “THE LISTENER,” set in an abandoned research facility at 02:17 AM. Use a dark, minimalist low-poly aesthetic: charcoal-black background and fog, stark off-white concrete rooms and ceilings, gray floors, muted teal/green-gray walls and props, sparse lighting, hard-edged architectural silhouettes, and a flashlight cone in front of the player. The camera is an FPS perspective with mouse look and the player starts in a central corridor at the laboratory entrance. Build a connected facility from simple box geometry with labeled rooms: LABORATORY, OFFICES, SECURITY, STORAGE, MEDICAL, MAINTENANCE, and a dark/restricted “ABANDONED WING,” connected by narrow corridors. Add ceiling light panels with different intensities so storage/maintenance/abandoned areas are especially dim. Furnish rooms with blocky desks and small monitors in offices/lab, shelves and crates in storage, cabinets and a medical bed in medical, and overhead pipes in maintenance. Place dark rectangular wall signs reading LABORATORY, SECURITY, MAINTENANCE, and EMERGENCY EXIT.

The core mechanic is sound: the player must keep quiet because a hostile creature called The Listener reacts to noise. Request microphone permission when the game starts and analyze microphone input; if microphone access fails, show a fallback message and let the player press N to make noise. Movement generates sound, with crouching quieter, normal walking moderately quiet, and running (SHIFT) much louder; footsteps produce timed noise pulses. N creates a small sound, or a louder clatter while holding SHIFT. Display a noise meter in the upper-right labeled QUIET, NOTICEABLE, LOUD, or DANGEROUS, with a muted green bar that becomes tan and then red as noise rises. The Listener is a large basic humanoid zombie model, initially idle in the distant facility. It should listen idly, investigate noticeable sounds, and chase the player when the noise is loud/dangerous; it moves faster while chasing. Show “FOOTSTEPS BEHIND YOU” in a danger color when it is chasing nearby. If it reaches the player, fade the screen and show a GAME OVER panel reading “The Listener found you.”

Implement this objective chain exactly: begin with “Restore auxiliary power.” Interact with the green AuxPowerTerminal in the laboratory to restore power and change the objective to “Find the security keycard.” Collect the gold Security Keycard in the offices, changing the objective to “Activate the elevator.” Use it at the SECURITY console, then use the elevator panel in MEDICAL to activate the elevator and advance to “Restore communications.” Use the communications panel in MAINTENANCE; then the objective remains/advances to reaching the final exit. Collect the pink/red Emergency Access Card in maintenance, unlock/open the final exit door at the north end, and walk beyond it to escape. On successful escape show an ESCAPED panel with “The signal made it out. Something else did too.” Also include the blue-gray Maintenance Key in storage and a security/maintenance/final exit door system: locked doors display which required item is missing, while opening a door makes a creak/noise. The keycard is required for the security door, the maintenance key for the maintenance door, and the emergency access card for the final exit. Interaction is proximity-based with E; items disappear when collected and appear in the inventory.

The HUD should be sparse and cinematic: upper-left CURRENT OBJECTIVE panel with the current objective text; upper-right noise meter; centered temporary status messages such as “THE FACILITY IS LISTENING,” “MICROPHONE ACTIVE,” “ACQUIRED: Security Keycard,” and “AUXILIARY POWER RESTORED”; lower-right INVENTORY showing Empty or collected item names; lower-left a small map panel toggled with M. The map is a simple dark schematic that only reveals rooms as the player enters them, with gray/teal room rectangles and a small white player marker. Include a bottom control hint: “WASD move · SHIFT run · CTRL crouch · SPACE jump · F flashlight · M map · N make noise.” F toggles the flashlight, M toggles the map, WASD moves, SHIFT runs, CTRL crouches, SPACE jumps, E interacts, and R restarts after death. Running drains stamina and it regenerates when not running, though stamina need not be prominently displayed. Start with a full-screen dark intro overlay containing the title, subtitle “RESEARCH FACILITY — 02:17 AM,” the text about the facility being abandoned for three days while emergency systems still run, “Restore communications and reach the extraction point,” “Keep your voice down,” and an ENTER FACILITY button. Use simple interface panels with thin translucent borders, muted gray text, and danger messages in red. Do not add weapons or combat: survival depends on exploration, item-gated progression, darkness, and controlling sound.