Thalassophobia Themed Nightmare

I already talked about how much I want a bug themed nightmare, though I also had a cool idea for a thalassophobia themed nightmare. In case you didn’t know, thalassophobia is the fear of the deep sea, like if you were to look around underwater and couldn’t see the bottom. Anyways, I feel like it’d be cool to see a monster that represents that fear, since it is a pretty common one.

Level Concept and Monster I feel like the esthetic would probably be similar to Stanger Sewers with all the pipes and tunnels, though still different. The floor of the level would be made of some gelatinous substance that resembles water. It is completely clear, allowing the player to see the void beneath them, and is solid enough for the player to walk on, but just barely. Though not solid enough for the monster of the level. I feel like you could base the monster off of any fish and it wouldn’t matter, since it’s mainly just the concept of deep sea and the unknown that people are afraid of, and not sea creatures themselves. It’s just mainly the fear of what could be lurking beneath. But anyways, rather than searching for the player on the surface, they swim under the water. If the monster is below your current location, you will be able to see their movements in the darkness, but not enough to make out what it actually is. This monster detects movements and vibrations in the water, so if you move while it’s beneath you, it’ll come to the surface and pursue you.

Traps It’d be cool to see some sort of fish hook trap that dangles from the ceiling. Kinda the same concept as a bear trap from BB. If you walk into it, you die. There could be a cool animation where once on the hook it pulls you up and you get hanged, though I know Dark Deception tends to actually stray away from actually showing brutality so maybe not. A whirlpool trap would also be really cool to see. Maybe something that pulls the player down deeper under the surface until their screen is shrouded in darkness. That’s basically all I got for now.

Boss Giant Anglerfish. It just has to be a giant anglerfish. The idea I had for the boss is a simple battle arena with nothing but you, the water beneath you, and some fish hook traps. The way the fight would go is pretty simple, the boss will track the player from underneath the water. Once it’s ready to attack, you’ll see a glowing light beneath you in the darkness. It will then charge upwards and try to eat the player. You can either speed boost out of the way, or perform a teleport right as it reaches the surface to dodge the attack. Your goal is to try to get the boss to bite into the hooks to do damage and that’s basically it, simple.

Conclusion That’s kinda all the ideas I had for the level, at least for now. Feel free to chime in and let me know what you would add or improve upon.