Communication strategy: «Harvest»

HARVEST is a realistic first-person survival horror game. A royal herald arrives in a pagan village with his retinue to convert the people to a new faith. But due to an unfortunate accident, the pagans' interest turns into a desire to deal with the uninvited guests. However, human anger is not the most frightening thing the hero will encounter on his path to redemption.

Engine: Unreal Engine 5 Platform: PC Perspective: first-person view Age rating: 18+

Game design is a communicative act between the designer and the player—a process of creating and interpreting messages. When we design mechanics, write sound, and build narratives, we encode intentions. The player, as the recipient, decodes them through their own cultural background, experience, and context.

Another distinctive feature of games is that, unlike other media, we move from the level of an outside observer to that of a full-fledged actor, making choices and decisions. This is gameplay.

Each element is a symbol waiting to be decoded:

• Visual language speaks through color, light, architecture, and animation;

• Mechanics convey possibilities (actions) and limitations;

• Sound design sets the emotional tone: it keeps you in suspense;

• Narrative fills mechanical actions with meaning and sets the context, as well as providing a field of interpretation for the player.

The game becomes a semiotic system where the designer's intention meets the player's interpretation. The gap between them is the game.

Semiotics helps create signs that players read intuitively (carved symbols, pillars, talismans), while affordances ensure that the world invites the player to take meaningful actions and shows that it is also in constant dynamics and dialogue with them.

• An amulet is not just decoration: its shape, thread color, location, and subtle sound accent form a multimodal sign that says “this house is protected,” and removing the amulet becomes both a mechanical task and a symbolic violation to which the game responds.

• Tall grass visually invites you to hide.

• A broken, bent fence shows that you can jump over it, unlike a high stockade.

• The loud, muffled footsteps and distorted speech coming from the monster walking through the village cause fear even before you meet it. We sense a force superior to us and try to avoid an encounter for as long as possible.

988 AD. The Christianization of Kievan Rus'.

The main character of Harvest is a herald who carries out the royal's order to convert pagans to the new faith, visiting large settlements with his retinue. He is pragmatic, treating the task more as a job.

The hero and his retinue arrive at one of the many settlements, paying little attention to the amulets on the houses and trees. But he soon realizes that rituals and symbols are not relics of the past.

After accidentally killing one of the local residents, the main character sets off a chain of bloodshed. First, he loses his retinue in a violent massacre at a feast. Then, during the ritual, he is hunted down by a risen dead man—the Ghoul. Being wounded and humiliated, the hero tears all the amulets from the houses and turns the wrath of the vengeful monster against the pagans themselves.

The herald escapes into the forest. Now his only goal is to find a way out. But nature, physically embodied by Leshy, will not let the hero go until he has completed his journey of atonement.

The settlement is surrounded by forest. Each part of it is under the control of one of the mythical creatures: the Water Spirit rules the swamp, and the Midday Spirit rules the fields. The Forest Spirit is a fair judge and guardian of peace, standing above everyone as the physical personification of nature.

The player tears down all the amulets and lays them out at the pillar in the ritual square, burning all the village's protective artifacts. At the same time, he is chased by the Ghoul. The player uses game objects to avoid colliding with the monster and distracts it by spilling the blood of fallen comrades.

The boss of the first act of the game. He patrols in searching for the player, but with good stealth, he goes to another part of the village or hides himself. When the player makes noise, the Ghoul comes and searches more actively. The monster senses the area where the player is located, so when there is a sound alert, he walks nearby. If the Ghoul spots the player, he will start chasing them, quickly increasing his speed. In open areas, the only way to stay alive is to dodge the Ghoul's jump. But you can also get away from him by jumping over fences, carts, and other objects that the monster crashes into while running.