Project Details
Role: Level Designer
Time: 8 Weeks, 2020/07
Team Size: 10 Developers
Engine: UE4
Genre: Singel Player Puzzle
Theme: Suspicion
Unmoored is a first-person puzzle and adventure game made in Unity for PC. The game explores the
dark and enigmatic story of Alexandra McCarter—a freelance journalist in the early 1900s—and her
atmospheric journey through a tropical island filled with both mystery and suspicion.
Responsibility
Level Design – sketched out the 2d map and come up with the key areas. Blockout the level, testing and make new iterations from feedback.
Set Dressing – I worked together with the 3d artist to set dress parts of the Island to help bring forward a cohesive level visions of the Island.
Top Down Map View
I sketched out a layout of the Island in PS to make it easier to build the vision in Unity. I wanted to create a level with a connecting point so the game started and ended at a familiar place.
The level is designed to naturally guide the player around the hole Island from start to finish.
The first real puzzle starts in the Workshop and the last puzzle ends in the lower level of the workshop.
We decided after feedback to cut and rebuild parts of the Island to create a more polished and compact Island for the players to explore.
Level Progression
This shows the first 2-3 weeks of progress then how the finished Island ended up.
I worked long with getting the right framing of the warehouse, a semi-tight elevating walk path with large rock walls on the side made the perfect framing. The light in the middle of the warehouse and the clutter takes the attention of the player’s eyes and makes the player walk over to the door.
The entire left side is blocked of creates a line towards the dumpster site with the warehouse key. Barrels and some palms are pointing towards the site and there is also a particle system to catch the eye.
The room is designed to bring focus on the levers puzzle. The robot stands beside it, there are a light source and clutter on the wall to take the player’s attention. Props in the room are pointed towards the puzzle-like table, lanterns and the left side is blocked off to lead players towards the puzzle.
Here you can see how you can walk around in the room. The large path is going towards the puzzle code and the short one is giving the player a note with extra information.
When you enter the forest from the Workshop you can see that I blocked off the sides and the player can see two openings. The one on the right shows the robot glowing and is on ground level so it will take the player’s attention.
The second opening is placed on high grounds to give the player a hint that it might be the way back later.
From this picture, you can see the second openings viewpoint from the high grounds and how it´s framing the workshop.