Landed War Scene

GENRE: First-person / VR action adventure
TYPE: Paid freelance level design blockout
CLIENT: AxeGangGames
ENGINE: Unreal Engine 5
FOCUS: Spatial flow, traversal pacing, landmarks, set-piece staging
CONSTRAINTS: Greybox-only layout; no final art, AI, combat logic, UI, audio, or VFX
ROLE: Level Designer

  • Designed a playable battlefield-torn desert greybox built around a crater hub, readable landmarks, and looping routes.
  • Staged key gameplay beats through spatial design: falling bombs, chaotic battlefield traversal, robot camp bomb making, bridge barricade, river accident, and cave return.
  • Focused on player readability, pacing contrast, objective framing, and clear placeholders for future combat/traversal systems.

Level overview

Color reference:

  • Red: Crater

  • Green: Bombs falling
  • Light blue: Chaotic battlefield
  • Light Orange: Robot settlement
  • Dark blue: Human village
  • Yellow: Arm placement
  • Pink (crosses + rectangle): Bomb making parts
  • Orange (cross): Leg placement
  • Black (cross): Falling into the river
  • Pink (shading): Bridge barricade
  • Purple: Golden path

Design Goals

Create a large desert war scenario as a readable playable sequence, balancing chaos, traversal, and clear objective staging.

 

Main intentions:

  • Keep the player oriented through strong landmarks, looping routes, and repeated returns to the crater.
  • Transform large-scale battlefield chaos into readable spatial challenges.
  • Stage future gameplay systems through level design, greybox geometry, and basic prototypes where useful.

Highlight 1: Controlled Chaos > Battlefield Run

This sequence was inspired by the trench charge scene in the film 1917: a moment where the player moves through a large-scale battlefield event rather than observing it from a safe distance.

 

The design challenge was to make the space feel chaotic and dangerous without losing readability. Falling bombs, running soldiers, enemy mechas, and framing are used to create pressure while still suggesting a clear route through the battlefield.

Highlight 2: Dual-Target Set Piece > Walking Bomb Bridge

The bridge encounter was designed as a small functional prototype around a simple risk/reward idea: the walking bomb can destroy the barricade, but only if the player commits to crossing with it.

 

I implemented basic placeholder combat logic for the mecha: it could aim, fire, and switch targets between the player and the walking bomb. If the player approached alone, the mecha focused on them. If the bomb was sent alone, it was destroyed before reaching the barricade. Only by advancing together did the mecha split its attention long enough for the bomb to reach the target and open the route forward.

 

The system was intentionally rough and built for level-design validation, not final combat behavior, but it made the spatial setup playable and testable.

Highlight 3: Forced Scenic Route > River Reveal

At the client’s request, this section temporarily removes movement control from the player (leaving just camera control) and sends them into the river, turning the action into a scenic route.

 

The fall, waterfall, and river path reveal the underside of the bridge and the settlements built into both canyon walls: a rigid, orthogonal robot side and a more chaotic, organic human side. This creates a pacing break while reinforcing the conflict spatially before the route continues into the cave.

Outcome

Delivered as a paid freelance UE5 level design blockout and approved after one revision pass.

 

The work helped establish the spatial structure, pacing, and key set-piece direction for the first part of the Landed War sequence, and led to a follow-up milestone for the next sections of the level.