Jizo No Akumu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2Oru-SudvY

A Japanese psychological stealth horror:Play as Jizo, exploring a nightmarish manor after her grandmother’s funeral, uncovering family secrets, and evading a demon.

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Jizo no Akumu | USC Thesis Project | Role: Creative Director, Product Owner, Level Designer | Engine: Unreal Engine | Team Size: 30 | Genre: Psychological Horror

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Project Overview

Jizo No Akumu is a Japanese psychological horror game where players use Astral Projection to explore the haunted Japanese manor and uncover a demonic entity tied to her family’s past,

As the Creative Director and Product Owner, I served as the bridge between creative vision and practical execution. I led a 30 person multidisciplinary team while also contributing directly to gameplay systems and level design.

My goal was to ensure the game felt cohesive mechanically,visually,narratively while keeping production structured and on schedule.

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Obstacles:

Managing a large team while developing a horror game with unique core mechanic came with challenges.

From a production perspective,we needed clear structure to avoid misconception and duplicated work.

From a design perspective, we faced three major issues:

• Introducing the Astral Projection mechanic without confusing players.

• Preventing players from getting lost Dark Japanese manor.

• Designing puzzles that felt intentional rather than arbitrary.

These problems required both system level thinking and careful iteration through playtesting.

A screenshot of our Trello board, showing color-coded tasks and teams. Organizing team with clear milestones accountability for a 30-person team

How was this resolved?

As the Creative Director and Product Owner, I focused on building a strong foundation before scaling the experience.

Production Structure

• Established weekly sprint planning and structured production workflows.

• Created centralized design documentation for gameplay systems.

• Held regular check ins to align art,engineering and design.

• Encouraged team autonomy while maintaining Milestone clarity.

This structure allowed the team to stay creative without losing momentum.

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  A screenshot of the art team communication channel on discord showing a positive check-in conversation

  
  

Designing the Core Mechanic: Astral Projection:

Astral Projection allows them to leave their physical body and explore the dream world.

Design Intent

The mechanic was built to:

• Reinforce vulnerability and tension.

• Enable dual realm puzzle solving.

• Create risk vs. Reward decision making.

Iteration

Early playtests revealed that:

• Players were unsure about projection limitations.

• Some interactions lack clear feedback.

To address this I:

• Defined stricter system rules for realm interactions.

• Added visual during statetransitions.

• Simplified puzzle dependencies tied to projection.

After iteration, players demonstrated clearer understanding of the mechanic within the first few minutes of gameplay.

Jizo's physical body is left behind in front of the door in order to search for clues, and he returns to the body once a solution is found.

Puzzle and Level Design

Initial Problem

During playtesting ,players frequently became disoriented inside greenhouse shrine level.

The environment was intentionally dark, but repeated architecture and low contrast made navigation unclear.

Design Changes

To improve spatial read readability,I:

• Introduced distinct environmental landmarks(Torii gate, lantern cluster, and ritual chamber).

• Adjust lighting contrast to emphasize the critical path.

• Used environmental storytelling to guide progression.

Shrine Puzzle Design

The Shrine puzzle required players to interact across both physical and dream realms.

The original version caused excessive backtracking and confusion around activation order.

I revised the puzzle:

• Reducing the number of required steps.

• Embedding clearer environmental clues.

• Aligning puzzle logic with narrative context.

The final version maintained tension while improving clarity.

The Shrine Puzzle: the player previously used the astral projection puzzle to find the key to the puzzle in order to unlock the door.

Conclusion:

Jizo no Akumu was both a leadership and design challenge. Balancing production management with hands-on system and level design required clear communication,structured workflows, and iterative thinking. The final demo delivered cohesive 15 minute verticle slice that successfully integrated dual realm mechanics,improved environmental readability, and aligned 30 person team around a shared creative vision.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y00dfj1T3UQ

3D Models

The following assets were created by members of the art team and are included here to showcase the visual models of the project.