Zolaris

LEVELS

SOFTWARE:

Unreal Engine 4 | Blueprints | Maya

INSPIRATION:

1st person stealth | RPG | Fallout | Bioshock | Dishonored

JOB TITLE:

Creative Director | Lead Level designer

TEAM SIZE: 13

DURATION: 8 Months

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Zolaris is a first-person stealth game about Valeria, a spirit medium bounty hunter, trying to escape a cathedral crawling with murderous cultists. The player must use their abilities to defeat the cultists in order to escape their capture.

In Zolaris there are 7 different maps around the Cathedral - The Crypt, Library, Worship Hall and Garden.

Level

I wanted the player to choose how they wanted to play the game between stealth and combat - The Owl and The Bear.

The Owl's path prioritized Stealth and the Bear's path prioritized combat.

LEVELS

GAMEPLAY

The Crypt is a sacrificing sanctum for the cultist which serves as one of the challenge areas. There is a Bear and Owl version of this level. For the Owl's path, I wanted to break away from the traditional stealth route that incorporates narrative into the mini-challenges for the players requiring them to use their stealth and problem-solving to succeed.

IMAGE GALLERY

CRITICAL PATH & MAPS

To navigate through the correct path of the crypt maze, the player must problem-solve with small context clues guiding them throughout the maze such as turned torches, obstructions on the floor and different colored torches.

Next, the player uses stealth to complete their task of saving 2 victims from the cultist sacrifice without being compromised. The player has a variety of ways to approach this task by using various ethereal objects to their advance, move through or hide in certain areas, as well as access to multiple entrances into the sacrifices' cell.

CRYPT CONSTRUCTION

This white box is designed to illustrate the placement and structure of the maze.

directing the player down a pathway.

that was full of props they could use to hide behind or sneak around. If the player continued down the wrong path they would be teleported back to the beginning of the maze.

After finalizing the map design the construction was much easier. I focused mostly on the maze at first, getting it white-boxed and functional. When players go down the wrong path they are teleported back to the beginning of the maze to try again. Once the maze was working as intended, I focused on constructing the bottom two floors of the crypt making sure to add enough props for the player to hide and sneak behind.

GAMEPLAY

FINAL PASS

The Library is a source of knowledge within the game and serves as one of the challenge areas for the player. For this project I was responsible for mapping out constructing and implementing the "Owl Route" for the library. The Owl route mainly focuses on stealth and using player mechanics to allude and take down enemies without being seen. I focused on these concepts by providing narrow pathways to allow the player to hide or get the jump on enemies before being seen.

MAP LAYOUT / CRITICAL PATH

For the Owl Path, I wanted to use bookshelves to not only fit the theme of the library but to give the player cover to avoid enemies. Up on the top floor, I place bookshelves in positions to allow the player to pear around corners at unsuspecting enemies. On the bottom floor, bookshelves are placed similarly but there are more pathways the player can choose to reach their end goal. Depending on the enemy patrol path players may go on the right left or through the middle to succeed

LIBRARY CONSTRUCTION

After finishing the map layout, I jump straight into the white boxing stage. I made the white box in Maya because I felt that it gave me more control over the library's construction. Once the basic white box is completed I imported it into unreal and put a coordinate texture on it. That way to insure are incoming assets were scaled properly.

As soon as I started receiving assets I began set dressing and game testing the feel of the level. Some changes were needed, placements of pillars and the construction of archways but after that, I moved to lighting the scene.

At first I wanted there to be an abundance of natural moonlight in the scene but I opted to change it because I felt it took away from eerie abeyance of the scene the. To compensate for the lost light, we added a few flickering torchlights

GAMEPLAY

THE WORSHIP HALL

The Worship hall is one of the recurring area's within the game where the player must return to upgrade their abilities and gain new power-ups. When designing this location I wanted to make the area dangerous for the player to encounter so that they would have to be cautious on how they progress. The players could go fully offensive but there are also tools around the map such as the water ways pillars flammable pyres and benches the player can utilize for stealth.

CRITICAL PATH AND MAPS

When designing this location I wanted to make the area dangerous for the player to encounter so that they would have to be cautious on how they progress. The players could go fully offensive but there are also tools around the map such as the water ways pillars flammable pyres and benches the player can utilize for stealth.

WORSHIP HALL CONSTRUCTION

As I sat down to construct the Worship hall in Maya, I relentlessly changed the style to fit a space that felt open but also navigable. Once I imported the white box into unreal, I begin testing the feel of the path ways. If enemies could spot me easily if the stealth felt fun and believable. Finally during set dressing I added in new assets, church benches, to give the player more cover to hide from enemies.

GARDEN

The Garden is the centre of the church and serves as the main hub for the player. When designing this I wanted the player to have options on how to proceed to their different challenges while also under constant threat of the enemy. My main role for the garden was lighting to present the scene in an eerie nighttime atmosphere. This was to ensure the player was always on their toes, to provide locations they can hide and stay out of site from other cultists, and keep the theme of our cultist horror aesthetic.

CRITICAL PATH AND MAPS

The Map layout for the garden was designed in a hub-like style so that the player could run through this space multiple times in one play-through. Along the edges of the garden, there are stone pillars and ledges that can be used to obstruct the view of enemy cultists. There are also flowing waterways that intentionally connect from the garden to the Worship hall . This allows players my options on how they want to stealth around both levels

LIGHTING EFFECTS

When Lighting this space I wanted to focus on the eerie atmosphere to most effectively encapsulate the player's interest, however, I ran into a few difficulties when trying to portray low light. Mainly the shadows in some spaces were entirely to powerful. To resolve this issue I added an exponential fog to cover the world and increased our skylight sensitivity to soffen the show darkness. Once that was done, in the post process I lightened the color of the shadows so they fit the aesthetic and atmosphere

WHITE BOX LIGHTING

INSPIRATION

I drew inspiration from different styles of 1st person stealth and RPG games like Fallout, Bioshock, and Dishonored as well as online imagery. From my research, I determined certain aspects that were required for a cult-like setting. First thing, candles and fog are very important elements. They add a sense of low light and obscurity to the scene. Next, the addition of a singular cult symbol to rally behind. Finally, for the church, I focused on incorporating large stained glass windows so that natural low light could flow into the space.