Files 06 — 11

The Cast

Four survivors, one rotting thing, and the worst idea in the house. Every body is 300–1,500 tris, one material, one 256px atlas, built on a shared humanoid rig so the skinwalker can wear any of them later. Readability is by silhouette + flashlight colour — you should know who’s who at 4 metres in the dark.

06—09

The Survivors

UNIT 06 · SCOUT
Joe
Fast · fragile · key runner
Body
Lanky, narrow, slightly hunched forward — always mid-stride even at rest.
Height read
Tallest silhouette, thinnest. Reads as quick and brittle.
Face / hair
Gaunt, hollow eyes, short scruffy hair. Looks like he hasn’t slept since before the house.
Clothing
Thin track jacket, taped sneakers, a single strap bag. Cool, light, washed-out blue-grey.
Light tint
Cold blue-white flashlight — the iciest beam of the four.
Animation
Twitchy, bouncing on his toes, head darting. Sprint Burst is a panicked lunge.
Under fear
Shakes hardest; hands blur; bolts before he means to. His speed is his only armour.
FP arms
Thin bare forearms, bitten nails, cheap watch. No gloves.
Dark ID
The narrow stooped outline + the bluest light. “The skinny one out front.”
UNIT 07 · SOLVER
Billy
Balanced · steady · fear-resistant
Body
Average everything — the human baseline the others are read against.
Height read
Mid height, mid build. Reads as calm and capable.
Face / hair
Plain, even, glasses. Neat enough to feel out of place here. The face you trust — which the skinwalker will use.
Clothing
Work shirt rolled to the elbow, utility trousers, satchel of odds. Neutral olive / khaki.
Light tint
Neutral warm-white — the “correct” beam, the reference others are judged against.
Animation
Economical, grounded. Steady Hands: he keeps working while others flinch.
Under fear
Slowest to break. Interactions stay smooth when everyone else’s shake. The anchor.
FP arms
Rolled sleeves, fingerless work gloves, a multitool clipped at the wrist.
Dark ID
The unremarkable middle outline + the truest light. “The normal one.”
UNIT 08 · PROTECTOR
Bob
Slow · sturdy · barricades doors
Body
Broad, tall, heavy shoulders — a doorway with a head. Not muscled; solid, working-stock heavy.
Height read
Widest silhouette by far. Reads as immovable, slow.
Face / hair
Heavy brow, tired kind eyes, thinning hair, stubble. A man who fixes things.
Clothing
Canvas coat, flannel, heavy boots, tool belt. Warm, dark rust and brown.
Light tint
Warm orange beam — the heaviest, lowest-held light.
Animation
Slow, deliberate, planted. Barricade is a full-body heave against the door.
Under fear
Stays put, breathes loud, plants himself between the threat and the team.
FP arms
Thick forearms, scarred work gloves, a wedding ring he still wears.
Dark ID
The huge low outline + warm orange light. “The big one holding the door.”
UNIT ?? · UNLOCK
PhilBillyBob
Unlockable · hybrid · slightly overpowered
Body
A kitbash that shouldn’t stand: Joe’s long legs, Bob’s slab torso, Billy’s head — stitched at mismatched scales.
Face
Three faces’ worth of features that don’t quite agree. Funny for one second, wrong for the next.
Clothing
Each limb wears a different survivor’s clothes. Seams taped. Colours clash on purpose.
Light tint
Split beam — half blue, half orange — that flickers between the two.
Animation
Confident swagger built from three gaits that keep fighting each other. A victory lap that limps.
Creepy detail
Idle: he slowly turns his head further than a neck should. Plays it as a joke; reads as the skinwalker’s cousin.
Why unlock
A trophy for beating the house — fast and tanky and steady, louder and goofier as the cost. You earn the right to disrespect 6741.
10

The Zombie

The MVP threat. Not a monster to fight — a slow, certain pressure that turns noise into death. It must be scary with almost no detail.

ENEMY 10 · HOSTILE
Body
Hunched, off-balance, head dropped forward and twisted. One side drags. Reads instantly as wrong human, never “creature.”
Face
Mostly hidden by shadow and hanging hair. When the torch catches it: slack jaw, no eyes you can meet. Detail is the player’s imagination — we under-render on purpose.
Skin / cloth
Grey-green, low-res, wet-looking from baked specular in the texture. Clothes are a former resident’s — it used to live here.
Movement
Slow relentless shuffle on patrol; a horrible lurching half-run on chase that is just faster than walking, never than a sprint. You can escape with planning, never by reflex.
In darkness
A blacker shape against black, found first by sound and the red rim-light of the entity. The torch reveals it too late on purpose.
Scares cheaply
Audio telegraph + silhouette + bad timing. It rounds a corner you just cleared; it’s standing where the torch wasn’t a second ago.
Idle

Wet breathing, a dragged foot, a low intermittent moan. Quiet enough to mistake for the house.

Chase

A rising rattling snarl + faster slapping footfalls. The cue itself is the alarm — no music sting needed.

Attack

A single brutal wet impact + a choked grab. Loud, short, sickening. No combo, no flourish.

Stagger

A bat hit buys a brief groaning stumble — never a death. It always gets back up.

11

The Skinwalker

Phase 2 · design now

The signature. It wears a teammate and is almost right. Built on the shared rig + the day-one appearanceDescriptor so it can copy mesh, material, colour-set, and flashlight tint. It must be fair: every copy ships with learnable tells.

How it reveals — when briefly seen

For a single frame the copy de-resolves: the texture flattens to raw untextured grey, the limbs stretch a few centimetres too long, the face holes open, and the model id flickers as 6741. Then it’s your friend again. You are never sure you saw it — which is the entire feature.

The tells — a fixed, learnable vocabulary

TellChannelWhat the player notices
EchoAudioReplays an old voice or chat line verbatim — something already said minutes ago. // the killer feature, text-mimic in MVP fallback
Can’t answer nowLogicCannot respond correctly to something that just happened (“what room are we in?”). Stalls, repeats, or deflects.
Wrong lightLightingIts flashlight tint is a shade off, or casts no beam at all, or throws no reflection in the bathroom mirror.
Bad gaitMovementOne animation beat is wrong — a step too smooth, a head-turn too far, a stride that doesn’t match the body.
Name glitchVisualThe nameplate flickers to 6741 for a frame, or shows the wrong teammate’s name.
Wrong place / timeBehaviourAppears right after a real separation, alone, leading away from where the team agreed to go.
Behaviour

It rarely attacks. Its weapon is the lure: it draws a player off alone, into the dark, toward the wrong door. It exploits real confusion windows — spawning when you’ve genuinely lost sight of someone — never on a blind timer. Social predator, not a brawler.

Fairness rules — non-negotiable
  • Never spawn a copy with zero tells. Paranoia must be testable.
  • A wrong accusation must never instantly kill a real teammate.
  • Give players a cheap verification ritual (flash twice; a shared fact) the copy fails.
  • Accusing carries a cost both ways — wrong calls hurt the accuser.