Illbleed levels

1. Brinesmaid: 'Til Depth do us Part

Set in an abandoned aquarium. Once reknown for its staff's work in exploring the sea and discovering (and displaying) new species, it has long since fallen into disrepair. The business closed down in the wake of the unsolved mass murder of a wedding reception that had been set up near the new attraction. In the wake of nearby fish showing odd mutations- including tooth-like bone growths sticking out through their skin and widened jaws- and fishermen disappearing from the nearby lake, guests take the role of an intrepid investigator who is searching for a link in the half-flooded and run down aquarium.

As they enter, hidden service tunnels revealed by decay wind further and further down into a bizarre facility, where the player eventually discovers that the new species 'discovered' by those working there had simply been mutated and frankensteined together. Notes imply an animal trainer who stumbled over the secret was made into their next 'attraction' over the course of several months, during which time her fiance attempted to find her and was disposed of.

The main monster of the attraction is the mutated trainer, taking the form of a 'mermaid' gone horribly wrong, who had been alternatingly searching or her fiance and hunting down any human she had seen out of the belief she was still trapped by the people who transformed her. The main character is able to find the fiance's body near the climax, leading her to surface from the water in a rage to try and attack them on dry land, giving them the opportunity to mercy kill her. Her design has some jellyfish-like aspects, giving a wedding veil-like series of flaps on her head that open to reveal disturbingly human like teeth scattered about.


Thematically, I could see the level starting out very open and empty, lacking much in space beyond old scraps of paper and trash on the floor, a few old bits of furniture like benches stacked up by the wall, and signs of vandalism like windows broken in/grafitti partially painting over art on the walls. Leftover fliers for attractions, the wedding reception, and old newspapers from the aquarium's last few days (with a lampshade being hung by a letter of resignation by the last janitor who was overwhelmed by the garbage and rotting stench he had been trying to find also serving as a useful clue later on).

The player will trudge through ankle-high water past broken open aquarium tanks, though as they go further, the large pieces of glass sticking out of the floor reveal that the tanks were broken from the inside. The service tunnels get claustrophobic, and eventually the player has to secure some scuba gear to go further down due to flooding. The flooded sections widen up again, but are pitch dark, both limiting their ability to detect traps ahead of time and also creating a paranoid feeling of something being in the water with them.

When the player finally comes across the main antagonist (finding her half-empty tank with 'LET ME OUT' written on the inside in what appears to be blood, then being chased across flooded hallways), they are chased to a location where they find notes explaining more of the situation and give them the final goal of locating the fiance's body. There might be at least one or two segments where players have to drain the water to progress, giving them a moment of safety as the mermaid angrily retreats with the water. Then, once they've had the chance to breathe, they must raise the water level in some sections to progress (such as up from a room where the ladder had been ripped from the wall, or to lift the dead body of the fiance from a pool).