Be that Person
The Stealth Puzzle Game Where You're the Hidden Threat
I’ve always loved tower defense games and the ref image below inspired this idea immediately, I hope you enjoy reading about it.
– Corey Johnson
What if you weren't the hero in the zombie apocalypse? What if you helped it all go downhill?
Be That Person is an upcoming single-player stealth puzzle game that flips the undead survival genre on its head. You're not here to save the day but to ruin it slowly, cleverly, and with as little suspicion as possible.
You've Been Infected. Don't Get Caught.
Each level of Be That Person starts with one simple truth: you're infected. Whether it's a zombie virus, alien parasite, or something stranger, you've got it—and you're not telling anyone. Your mission: Blend in, lie convincingly, complete objectives, and prepare to unleash chaos at just the right moment.
Be that Person isn't about surviving because you never do. Wear a scarf to cover a neck bite on a hot day. Pouring ketchup over a wound in a fast food kitchen? Every move, clever or not, is a step closer to a high score—and to a brutal finale where you bring the whole group down with you.
Gameplay That's All About the Slow Burn
Inspired by the sandbox structure of games like Hitman and the stealth of Metal Gear Solid, Be That Person challenges players to master environments full of cautious NPCs, branching objectives, and a layered suspicion systems.
Stealth With Purpose
The less your fellow survivors notice you, the less chance they have to discover you are infected. Out of sight, out of mind.
Hide bodies in places your group won't check, remember the goal. Your group needs food; the refrigerator is probably not the best choice.
A dynamic suspicion meter tracks what NPCs know; if they have a chance to talk to each other, they can figure out you are infected.
Cause a ruckus to draw members of your group to areas or pull them away from areas you don't want them.
High-Stakes Minigames
Minigames are necessary; your group will become suspicious if you don't complete them. Be careful; the more you fail, the more noise you make, drawing attention to yourself. As your infection progresses, minigames become more and more challenging. You are in the middle of an apocalypse and calling zombies, aliens, or other horrific things to your group is frowned upon.
Searching cupboards is a minigame like Jenga, where you carefully move stacked boxes and containers around as you search for something useful.
Finding a firearm is lucky, but you must carefully check it works before handing it to the group. If your hands slip you might discharge the weapon.
You will often have to clean up your blood as an infected person. Cleaning is a fun tracing-style minigame. Be quick and remember to hide the bloody rag.
Creative Problem Solving
Use everyday objects to hide your condition: food wrappers, jackets, makeup, "accidentally" covering your wound with mud, ketchup, etc.
The same level can play out differently depending on how you cover your tracks.
You can try things and retry levels as much as you want, so see what you can get away with.
Gameplay Flow: Infection in Motion
Every level of Be That Person is a tightly wound sequence of escalating tension, branching choices, and darkly comedic deception. Here's how it all plays out:
1. Infection Begins
Your character starts each level by being infected and on a timer. The clock is ticking, and the transformation is coming. But no one else knows… yet.
2. Hide the Evidence
Your first task: get rid of the zombie body, alien husk, mysterious goo, etc. Whether you sneak it into a freezer, dump it in a dumpster, or bury it under supply crates, your chosen method directly impacts the level's difficulty.
Well-hidden: Lowers immediate suspicion and gives you breathing room.
Sloppy job: Creates a "suspicion hotspot" that NPCs will investigate.
3. Cover the Bite
Next, it's time to disguise your infection. The tools available will vary per level: scarves, ketchup, duct tape, and old clothes are some of the many choices. Remember, each option comes with trade-offs.
Smart cover-ups make future interactions easier; spilled ketchup on a bloody wound can buy you time.
Suspicious choices (e.g. scarf on a hot day) risk raising eyebrows later when you are sweating.
4. Mandatory Meet-Up
After a short grace period, your group will call a team meeting to discuss the objective: scavenging for food, hunting for medicine, searching for weapons, etc.
If you arrive on time, you blend in.
If you're late, you must pass a lying minigame to avoid suspicion.
5. The Group Mission
The core gameplay loop: completing minigames to help the group without revealing your infection. You'll need to:
Solve environment-based puzzles
Avoid slip-ups that might expose your wound and react dynamically if your cover starts to fail
and, of course, through minigames, collect the materials the group needs.
Minigame performance matters.
The more skillfully you play, the faster the timer goes down and the less your bite is exposed. Sloppy execution increases suspicion and forces you to scramble for new ways to hide the infection mid-task.
6. The Exposure Risk
Throughout the mission, any NPC could become a threat if they notice something's off. If your infection is spotted:
You can eliminate the witness—but doing so decreases your final score and escalates global suspicion.
You'll have to improvise, using new items or strategies to stay hidden.
If too many NPCs become aware, they will band together and kill you immediately, ending the level.
7. Infect Everyone (The Ultimate Win)
Conceal your infection, see the mission through till the end, and survive to the end. You'll be rewarded with:
A high score based on stealth, creativity, and efficiency
A darkly satisfying cinematic of your fully infected self turning on the group
Progression to more complex levels with more challenges
Every level is a puzzle box of improvising, tension, and betrayal. Success means you were, indeed, that person in every horror movie that we all hate.
You won't survive the apocalypse— so help it happen.
The Goal? Take Everyone Down With You
The ultimate aim of each level is to infect everyone in a grand climactic scene, at just the right moment when your infection entirely takes hold. Nail a perfect run, and you'll unlock a cinematic showing your infected self turning on the group in spectacular fashion.
But if you slip up? If too many people find out what you are? You'll be hunted down and killed. Game over.
