👀 Game Overview 👀

Title: Persian Corridor
Genre: Stealth / Narrative-Driven / Cultural & Historical / Fantasy & Horror
Platforms: PC (Steam/Epic) | Engine: Unreal Engine 5
Release Target: Nowruz 2028 (April)

Target Audience: 16-35 (UK/EU focus, US/ME secondary).
Price: £16.75 | $22.45

"In a world where adults choose fight or flight, a child steals back hope... one ration at a time."

Three Layers of Reality

The world isn't just a map; it's a shifting psychological landscape. Players navigate three distinct visual and mechanical planes:

• The Grey Reality (Normal): A dusty, occupied 1940s Iran. Set within the lush, fog-laden forests and jagged peaks of Northern Iran, where the humid Alborz mountains meet the Caspian gloom. Desaturated colours, heavy shadows, and the constant hum of foreign machinery. Your goal: Scavenge, survive, and stay unseen.

• The Golden Myth (Easy): For 7 seconds, the world erupts in colour. Sun-drenched turquoise and gold. Kurosh becomes a hero of the Shahnameh, gaining the strength of Rostam to tear down gates or leap across treacherous ravines and crumbling mountain debris.

• The Ink Nightmare (Hard): The debt is called due. The world turns into a chilling, distorted version of itself, monstrous Daevas hunt you through a landscape of melting film and twisted shadows.

The Architecture of Trauma (Mechanics)

1. The Q-System: "The Hero’s Debt"

The transition between worlds is immediate. There is no safety in the shift.

• The Transaction: Pressing Q grants you power, but it records every second. If you use 5 seconds of "Heroism," you must survive 5 seconds of "Nightmare."

• The Penalty for Greed: If you lose track of time and let the 7-second timer run out, the Nightmare doesn't just match your time, it doubles to 14 seconds of pure survival.

• Visual HUD: No digital clocks. Intricate Persian Tile patterns grow around the screen's edge. When the mosaic is complete, the world shatters.

2. The Melting Mind (Sanity)

Sanity isn't just a bar; it's a lens.

• The Burning Film: As Kurosh’s sanity slips, a "melting film" effect begins to eat away at the edges of the screen. Visual artifacts and Gaussian distortions make the path ahead uncertain.

• The Sanity Tax: Getting caught in the Nightmare forces a respawn and leaves a permanent "burn" on your sanity for the rest of the level.

3. Perspective Shifts: "The Family Breath"

The game breathes through its characters. Out of the 7–9 levels, 3 chapters shift away from Kurosh to focus on the family he is trying to save:

• Darius (The Father): Narrative levels focused on the burden of denial and protection.

• Kaveh (The Brother): Dialogue-heavy segments exploring anger and the choice to join the resistance.

• Purpose: These are mechanical "breathers"; no stealth, just high-stakes dialogue that determines the family's ultimate fate.

Themes & Pillars (USP)

• A Fractured Trinity: Three family members representing the stages of grief: Denial (Father), Anger (Brother), and Bargaining (Kurosh).

• The Hidden Corridor: Exploring a forgotten side of WWII, the civilian struggle in the "Bridge of Victory."

• Mythic Resilience: Using thousand-year-old folklore to process a modern tragedy.

Technical Specs & Production

• Hardware (Mid-Potato):

  • Min: Win 10, i5, GTX 970, 8GB RAM.

  • Rec: Win 11, i7, RTX 2060, 16GB RAM.

• Team: Current lead: @Hamie Nouri Nouri (Producer/Designer).
  Seeking a team of <7 people (contractors or core).

  • Currently In talks with 3 folks to join the team

    • [the rest of positions are open]

• Funding Goals: £20K for seed; £500K for "Director's Cut" (Grants/Crowdfunding).

Timeline

• Nowruz (March) 2027: Vertical Slice

• Mehregan 2028: Beta

• Nowruz 2029: Launch

"Grief is a ghost. In the Persian Corridor, you don't just feel it... you survive it."