Vault of the Vanished
- Genre: 3D Action Adventure
- Type: Blockout
- Engine: Unreal Engine 5
- Tools: JakubW IWALS, UE Blueprints, Miro
- Iterations # 6
- Playtests # 5
- Role: Level designer
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Goal
Design a polished, Uncharted-style 3D action-adventure level with:
- A satisfying gameplay pace
- Traversal challenges as a primary focus
- Evolving puzzle elements
Additionally, practice in-depth preproduction and feedback driven iteration to ensure a quality player experience.
I’ve always been drawn to the thrill and storytelling of action-adventure games. Classics like the Uncharted series have inspired me to create a level in that style.
I discovered the 3D Action and Adventure level design bootcamp by Nathan Kellman (Diablo IV, Mafia: The Old Country, Mantra) and the Funsmith Club, I was excited to join to expand my skillset and learn new processes and techniques for designing 3D adventure levels.
My goal was to build a polished 3D adventure level in the style of the Uncharted series‘ mountaineering levels. For this, I focused on building a block out of a linear underground cave. I wanted to challenge myself to create a space that feels cinematic and well-paced, capturing that blend of traversal, exploration, and puzzle-solving those games are known for.
Additionally, I used this project as an opportunity to practice an organized preproduction workflow and feedback-driven iterative process; where I have a number of peers and mentors give constructive feedback on each iteration.
Level Overview and Highlights
Setting: Underground Cave-ruin located inside a mountain.
Tone and Mood: Ancient, Mystery, Uninviting.
Synopsis:
After a perilous climb, the player enters an ancient village and discovers a tomb leading to a vast vault hiding a mysterious threat.
Constraints:
- Engine: Unreal Engine 5
- Perspective: First-person (FPS)
- Platform: PC
- 8wk Time Frame
Design Pillars:
Traversal – Grounded parkour adventure mechanics structured around organic environmental structures
Reactivity – Ensure the ancient, untouched environment reacts to the players presence
Tutorial – Give the player safe spaces to try out different mechanics to familiarize themselves with the gameplay
Highlights of the level
Entering the Tomb: Traversal & Introductory Area
This level begins set in between levels of the game. Shortly after entering, the only exit is blocked. In a darkened environment the only way is forward.
The start offers a slow buildup of obstacles to gradually teach the game mechanics. This takes place in tight wall-to-wall corridors to settle the player into an early sense of tension.
Bridge Collapse: Traversal & Narrative Area
The player approaches a wide opening with a large gap to the other side. An ancient stone bridge crosses that gap. The bridge collapses as the player walks across.
- This event heightens the environments danger and temporarily spikes the levels tension
- Evolves the previously taught mechanics
- Advanced climbing and traversal
- Adds a use case for the push block
Artifact Room: Puzzle & Traversal Area
The player enters a room that leads to a dead end with a large, locked door in the back. There are two pressure plates, but the blocks are scattered around the room.
- The room is built in a cyclical nature with a golden path the player does not have to follow to encourage exploration
- Further evolves mechanics
- Uses the push blocks in a pressure plate puzzle.
Techniques Used
VIDEO
Limited Light:
The level is naturally dark with the player only having a flashlight. Guiding the player without being obvious was going to be difficult. 👇
- Visual organic breadcrumbs to guide forward
- Emissive materials on puzzle elements to attract attention
Progress
Top View
Progress
Bridge Collapse
Artifact Puzzle Room
Walkthrough
Beat 1: Entering the Vault
At the start of the level, the Player is entering the cave and traversing forward.
- Base gameplay mechanics such as climbing and parkour are introduced here.
- “Safe spaces” are offered to ease the player into the traversal mechanics
Beat 2: Bridge Collapse
A narrow crevice opens up to a large room revealing a large room with a stone bridge to get across.
- The bridge collapses as the player walks onto it spiking level intensity and elevating player engagement.
- This beat is set right after the ease in to solidify the intended dangerous setting.
Beat 3: Spike Hall
What looks like an empty passage is actually a spike laden hall.
- Cinematic moment to engage the player and keep tension.
- Helps maintain the goal of level reactivity to the players presence.
Beat 4: Artifact Room
A large basin with a platform and the treasure in the center. The room acts a traversal puzzle to activate two pressure plates simultaneously to proceed.
- Heavily reinforces learned mechanics
- Propels the levels narrative forward.
Beat 5: Dragon Chase
The vaults beast -a Dragon- awakens when the artifact is disturbed. It shrinks the player leaving them no other choice but to run.
- A sequence of sudden high tension after calm and reward.
- Element of suprise changes the levels gameplay dynamic
Beat 6: Vault Escape
Barely escaping the dragon, the ground gapes open plunging the player down.
- Maintain high reactivity and interactivity of the environment during the chase.
- The reveal of the village in the distance hints at what’s next
Process
1: Research, ideation and planning
My first step when building a level is to generate a cohesive level idea from scratch. My goal here is to define the world and player activity.
Process (using Miro👆):
- 1. Define the Level by defining the setting, tone, mood, mechanics and goal.
- 2. Analyze other games for inspiration.
- 3. Refer to our world for realistic references to build off of.
- 4. Explore non-game media to see what other worlds can inpire the level.
- Played the Uncharted games to gather references to inform gameplay style and mechanics.
- Gathered visual references from The Hobbit and Indiana Jones films for mood, tone, and setting.
Result:
I was able to get a much clearer idea of what I wanted my level to look like. I feel confident to begin documenting the decisions and get into engine. This is also where I would get peer feedback on the preproduction.
2: Level Documentation + 2D Map
My next step is to create living documentation to refer to while building the level in engine. This is generated from the previous brainstorm and research.
Process:
- Create a Level Design Document to finalize certain details such as level objectives, setting, mechanics/constraints.
- To further define the level, I drafted a beat sheet to visualize level events and assigned intensity values to iron out pacing between them.
- Sketched 2D maps for the full level layout and detailed layout of specific rooms.
- Here I was able to use place beats on the layout to inform the roughout.
Result:
Documenting my design decisions gave me a definitive to refer to during in-engine building, and when things needed to change, the documentation allowed me to change things while keeping the original core idea intact.
3: The First Roughout
I have a clear idea of the level and a 2D map as a starting point, I now feel confident to move into the engine.
Process:
I start in Unreal engine with a super rough pass to geta basic understanding of the level in 3D space.
- Transitioned 2D map to UE5 by roughly pathing the level with simple geometry.
- Simulated advanced traversal gameplay using teleport blueprints.
- The second pass added walls/ceilings and defines basic gameplay spaces while still simulating advanced areas
- Utilized my previous research to actively inform the spaces visual direction.
Result:
Keeping the visuals mundane and geometric in the early stages helped me gauge the desired length of the level. Player feedback was gathered at this stage to get a feel of what could be missing early on.
4: Blockout, Iterate, Refine (Cycle)
After getting the base layout of the level done in 2 rough passes. Here, I blockout the level, define the advanced gameplay spaces, and make multiple iterations and revisions.
Process: (continuous cycle)
- Advanced blockout to define the natural space of the level.
- Define advanced gameplay spaces
- Receive feedback upon each major iteration.
- Iterate and refine the level based on self and peer feedback.
Iterating the blockout:
This project heavily revolved around player feedback. After a wave of iteration, I would regularly meet with peers and mentors to playtest the level and ask specific questions.
- “Is the level fun?”
- “What can be improved on?”
Other Iteration Changes
Cut Areas
Initially set after the dragon chase sequence, The [shrunken] player would approach an area patrolled by rats to avoid. After passing them, the player falls into a larger space where they have to collect gem shards and avoid patrolling rats.
After the 5th and 6th weeks iterations, I received little positive feedback on this area of the level. It was ultimately cut to uphold the levels strengths.
- After multiple iterations it was not achieving the desired goal
- Area felt significantly different from the rest of the level before it.
Puzzle Room
The artifact puzzle room as the most challenging area to build and iterate while ensuring it reached my goals
Problem:
- Too much unused space
- puzzle set-up felt too complicated
- room felt cramped
Solution:
- Used a “round-robin” to use full space
- Removed water and switches, simplified room goal
- Added traversal provided better flow
Takeaways
This project helped me realize the flaws i previously had in my design process. What I was doing right, wrong, or could change.
- Improved Design thinking: I developed a better sense for how to develop a level from paper to the engine
- Feedback is key!: The feedback i received drastically helped change the level for the better during iteration sprints
- Core Design Process: I had holes in my personal process that are patched thanks to the mentorship throughout.