A co-op submarine horror game built in Unity HDRP. Crew a deep-sea submarine with friends, manage failing systems, and survive what's lurking in the dark.
⚠️ Note: This is a public showcase for a commercial game in active development. The source code is private. This repo documents the project, its engineering, and my role on it.
DEEP PANIC is a 1–4 player co-op horror game where you and your crew operate a submarine in the crushing dark of the deep sea. Power, oxygen, navigation, and sensors all have to be managed by hand — and something outside the hull is paying attention. Built by a two-person indie studio, targeting Steam Early Access (Nov 2026) with an appearance at Steam Next Fest (Oct 2026).
Genre: Co-op Horror · Submarine Sim Players: 1–4 online co-op Engine: Unity (HDRP)
The interesting part. As lead developer I designed and built the core engineering systems below.
- Underwater rendering pipeline — volumetric fog, light scattering, and depth-based desaturation to sell the pressure and darkness of the deep
- Custom HDRP shaders — triplanar mapping, alpha clipping, and Shader Graph materials for terrain, hull, and props
- Security-camera night vision and a holographic map visualization for in-world UI
- Post-processing — dynamic desaturation and a damage-overlay effect tied to ship/player state
- GPU-instanced kelp and fish systems driven by Unity's Job System + Burst, rendering large dense underwater environments while holding frame budget
- Data-oriented design to keep simulation off the main thread
- Steam Audio integration for true 3D spatialized sound, including elevation cues — critical for locating threats and crewmates by ear in the dark
- Online co-op netcode Netcode for GameObjects synchronizing crew, ship state, and the submarine itself
- Co-op submarine physics — shared-control movement with tilt correction and collision-aware rotation so multiple players crewing one vessel feels stable
- AI Director — dynamic, tension-paced enemy spawning rather than fixed encounters
- Proximity sensor system feeding the sonar/alert loop
- End-of-game / results screen and supporting UI
I'm the lead developer and co-founder, responsible for the technical architecture and the majority of the engineering: rendering, performance-critical simulation, multiplayer, audio integration, and gameplay systems.
Roughly 1.5 years of development to date.
- Engine: Unity (HDRP)
- Language: C#
- Multiplayer: [Netcode for GameObjects / Fishnet]
- Audio: Steam Audio
- Performance: Job System, Burst Compiler, GPU instancing
- Shaders: Shader Graph, custom HLSL
- Pipeline: Blender, Substance Painter (3D asset workflow)
- Platform: Steam (PC)
- ✅ Core systems: rendering, co-op netcode, submarine physics, AI Director
- 🔜 Steam Next Fest — October 2026
- 🎯 Early Access launch — November 17, 2026