The Depths
Uncover the secrets of a forsaken mine. The Depths pits players in a tense struggle to explore, solve puzzles, and manage their resources in order to survive.
Engine: Unreal 5.3
Genre: First Person Horror
Platforms: PC
Team size: 5
Duration: 16 weeks
Software used: Miro, Inkarnate, MidJourney
What did I do?: I designed and scripted all the content on this portfolio page with the exception of the lantern and its associated systems (done by our programmer), and the sounds which were done by our sound designer. (Art assets from the Unreal Marketplace, full list at the bottom of the page)
1. Light system. The player is safe as long as they are in the light. The lantern has refillable cartridges which the player can collect.
2. Let the player's imagination do the work. We don't ever want to fully show the monster to the player.
3. Make players do the things they fear the most. In a game where the light and it's fuel is safety, asking players to leave the light and venture into areas where they don't know if their fuel will last is terrifying.
4. Reconnaissance by death. Players will have to build a mental map of the depths to succeed. They'll need to experiment with learning level layouts and how to prioritize their fuel.
Design Pillars
Pre-Production
I laid out my side of the level in Inkarnate and then annotated the major beats with Miro.
I also charted out the expected player flow through the whole level with Miro.
Based on our level design needs, we made a GDD for our project. I did the formatting.
Production
I started by whiteboxing my layout, but quickly discovered some problems with my plans. In particular, the puzzle at Point A was boring and the player could die arbitrarily at point C.
This was the final layout for this part of the level, the changes will be discussed below.
A. Redesigning the Balance Plate Puzzle: The pressure plates were originally located equidistant from the door, meaning placing 1 object on the left plate and 2 objects on the right plate would solve the puzzle, however this felt a bit gamey and uninteresting. I discovered there was an opportunity to increase the depth of the puzzle and develop the theme from the previous puzzle by placing one plate closer to the door and the other further from the door. This way, placing your lantern on the plate closest to the door provides you with light inside the reward chamber and plenty of time to loot it, but if you place your lantern on the farther plate, the reward chamber will be too dark to see and you won't have enough time to loot and retrieve your lantern before the monster attacks. Due to the redesign, the collapsing tunnel with gold inside was scrapped, as it didn't fit the mechanics here, but could be used in a later level.
Reward chamber with lantern placed on the far pressure plate. (Good luck finding your loot!)
Reward chamber with the lantern placed on the near pressure plate. (There's that pesky gear!)
B. Redesigning the chasm crossing: I added an open area and verticality change to the chasm crossing because the player has been going through a lot of claustrophobic spaces for a few minutes now, and they just experienced one of the most intense moments of the level. I wanted to give them a brief reprieve through a more open space.
C. Redesigning the shed encounter: When players approach the shed, their light goes out and they must make a split-second decision to duck into the shed and shelter from the monster. In the original design, this decision happened at an intersection, which was a bad idea. As you can see, 2 of the 3 choices resulted in the player dying and the player doesn't have enough time or information to make a reasonably informed decision about which way to go, resulting in their death feeling arbitrary and unfair.
To alleviate this, I moved the shed encounter to its own hallway, so sheltering in the shed is by far the most logical option.
However, when exiting the shed, I use a reverse-reveal technique to show the player that there was another path.
Which leads them to this spooky encounter with the monster, whom is standing in a spot the player was in just a few moments ago!
Designing a puzzle that makes players do what they fear the most: Here we challenge the player with solving a pressure plate puzzle, put an object on the pressure plate and the door opens, but what object can the player put on the plate?
The monster acts as a gate and indicates to the player that they have everything they need to solve this puzzle, because they can't backtrack.
And so the player must solve the puzzle by putting their lantern down and leaving its safety. Watch the player's thought process playout in the video.
Set Piece Design
Designing the set piece: A key point in this level is a panoramic viewpoint over an abandoned mining village. The viewpoint acts as a hub for the level as the main quest is located here: a gear puzzle that players must complete to repair the elevator and descend into the abandoned mining village. Making the vista point memorable is essential as it performs a number of important gameplay functions: it acts as a critical landmark for the level's main quest, as a motivator for the player to progress (If I repair the elevator, I get to do down there!), and the elevator ride is the scene of the level's twist & finale
Unfortunately our concept artist wasn't able to make any concept art for the set piece due to some scheduling difficulties, so I generated AI concept art using MidJourney.
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Set piece blockout progression. The buildings were whiteboxed with SuperGrid and then kit bashed with wooden beams from Quixel Bridge's Megascans.
The design of the gear puzzle communicates its quest objective without any text. There are 2 missing gears. Find them, insert them, and then all 5 gears will spin. This is reinforced by the voiceline that plays when the player attempts to activate the elevator.
Once the player solves the gear puzzle to repair the elevator, they ride the elevator down into the level's finale, where they learn that the one monster they've struggled so hard to escape from has a lot of friends. It's a dramatic turn of events, where I've twisted a moment of relief into one of terror & despair.
The gear puzzle and balance plates are scripted in Blueprints.
The elevator ride & associated action are scripted with sequencer.
Assets used: Super Grid, Advanced Locomotion System V4, Quixel Bridge Megascans, Primitive Characters (Pack) by Bugrimov Maksim, Demon Dog by Protofactor, Modular Crystal Mine by Scale X, Demon Vocalizations by Magic Sound Effects, Oil Lamp (https://skfb.ly/oIrJA) by MatiasMyma is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution