AAA Third Person Horror

ROLE

Level Designer

Introduction

My inspiration for this level comes from one of my beloved franchise: Resident Evil. My starting point was to create a location that was not part of the Resident Evil 3 Remake, the Clocktower.

My goal was to focus on key features of the franchise: Exploration, Puzzle solving, Stealth and Gun Play in a High Fidelity AAA Blockout with dark and oppressing environment.

YEAR

2025

Project Details

Developed in 2 weeks
Made in Unreal Engine 5
Level Design Blockout
Blueprints scripting
Level Sequences
AI Zombies patrolling

PRE-PRODUCTION

Level Requirements

References

Workflow

Paper Design

I do a first Paper Draw Design to setup the Golden Path that the player will get, adding obstacles and buildings based on the gameplay mechanics listed in my requirements.

Blockout Process and Iterations

At this point, I open up the Game Engine and start my Blockout. During the whole process, I will try to improve my design by Playtesting multiple times and fix issues I might find.

First Iteration

Final Iteration

Final Design

Level Flow

2 - Exploration

You look around and find that the door of the bookstore is open. You go see in there if there is a way to get over the bus

4 - Reaching the rooftop

Once you are in the stairwell, you see a broken window of an apartment. You keep climbing until you step inside.

6 - Fire Alley - Second puzzle

The alley is on fire and you need to find the water wheel to extinguish the fire and continue.

8 - Acquiring a Weapon

You see a dead officer and his gun laying on the ground. You grab it and you see a zombie approaching.

10 - Inside the Town Hall

You talk to the mayor that briefs you to get the missing bell's cog so you can make it ring and escape.

12 - Boss introduction - Fifth puzzle

With the access card, you open the first door. You see for the first time Nemesis and you escape through the window.

14 - Ring the bell

You place the cog in the bell's mechanism and the bell rings. You hear the helicopter arriving and the mayor runs to get in it.

16 - Escape

You run away from Nemesis and you jump into the helicopter, escaping the city with the mayor.

1 - Define the objective

At the beginning, you are briefed by Andy to go to the Town Hall and rescue the mayor. But the road is blocked and you need to find an alternate path to reach the Town Hall.

3 - First puzzle

When you enter the bookstore, you see there is a door leading to the alley. There, you see a broken ladder but you can't reach it from the ground.

5 - Getting over the bus

On the rooftop of the bookstore, you see a cable linking two buildings where you can use it to glide over the bus and reach the alley.

7 -Police cars crash

When you continue in the alley, you see two police cars crashing. In a hurry, you climb the fence to help the police officers.

9 - Reaching the Town Hall - Third puzzle

You crawl under the fence and go behind the town hall. You shoot the construction crane to get a box to be able to climb in the town hall.

11 - Bell's mechanism - Fourth puzzle

On the second floor, you see the broken bell's mechanism.

13 - Bell's gear

You enter the mechanical room and you see two lickers. You quietly walk around to find the bell's gear and you climb up the ladder, escaping by the vent system.

15 - Climax - Boss Encounter

While you run to reach the helicopter, Nemesis reappears and won't let you go. You try to shoot it but it does nothing.

Level Design Techniques

Affordance

In the exploration phase, I use different affordance techniques to guide the player such as Lights, Leading Lines, Colors and Framing.

Gating Player progression

To slow player's progression, I use Soft Gates. The player needs to make a pause and analyze the surroundings to get through the gate.

On the other hand, Back Gates prevent the player from backtracking and act as an end for the Tension and Release moments.

Attractive Openings

Attractive openings help guide the player to the Golden Path without taking him/her by the hand.

Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs help guide the player to the critical path without telling him/her what to do.

Level Sequences

I created different Level Sequences to add like cutscenes, which add a more cinematic ambiance to the level. I also use it as a level design technique with police cars Movements which guides the player to the critical path.

Exploration

One of the pillars of Resident Evil is the exploration. As a reward for exploring the level, we give the player more ammo.

Landmarks

Landmarks offer an objective, a place to reach for the player. It helps the player to explore the environment to find a way to the objective.

The town hall is Revealed as a Macro Landmark and there is different Meso and Micro Landmarks across the level.

Verticality

Throughout the whole Level, I add Verticality to create Micro and Meso Landmarks, also as a Vantage Point. I also use it as a Back Gate.

Puzzle Solving

I made several puzzles in this level to make the player stop and think about the solution. It releases the player's tension. But I set one puzzle to be a Hard Gate (Bell's gear).

VFX

I created VFX to make the level more immersive and realistic. It helps also to share my ideas and my vision about the project.

Conclusion and Thoughts

It was my most intense but most valuable project I had done. It was done in only two weeks and I pushed my Level Designer skills to create the best experience to pay tribute to Resident Evil.

I had some challenges with the ALS system to get a one-take playthrough but it was minor issues. With more time on this project, I would set a bigger city with more buildings to explore and add more encounters to fight. I would also add better and more complex puzzles so the game would challenge the player's reflexes and mind.