Haunted Forest
- Genre: 3D Action Adventure / PvE
- Type: Blockout
- Engine: Unreal Engine 5
- Tools: AutoCAD, Photoshop, DaVinci Resolve, Audacity, JakubW asset pack
- Iterations # 8
- Playtests # 5
- Role: Level designer
Overview
Goal
Vision: A dark, oppressive forest where design and mechanics fuse into dread, every choice calibrated to keep players on edge, hearts racing as they push forward.
Core Inspirations:
- Limbo → oppressive atmosphere.
- Tomb Raider → traversal & puzzle/combat integration.
- Breath of the Wild → open exploration & environmental storytelling.
Design Goal: Blend exploration, combat, and puzzles into a narrative-driven experience with escalating intensity.
What I Achieved:
- Iterated more than in past projects.
- Solved technical challenges with blueprints (enemy AI, puzzles, event triggers).
- Balanced gameplay with a strong, immersive atmosphere.
Level Overview & Technique Highlights
Setting & Synopsis: The level unfolds in a standard medieval low-fantasy world, suddenly torn apart by a magical catastrophe. In an instant, the familiar forest twists into something unrecognizable — with distorted paths, ruins of a forgotten civilization erupting from the ground, and monstrous creatures appearing where there was once peace.
The player takes the role of a young squire, returning to the White Tower with his knight after settling a local dispute. But the disaster strikes without warning, and the knight is killed almost immediately. Stranded in a warped, haunted forest, the squire must navigate the hostile landscape and reach the White Tower if he hopes to survive.
Tutorializing
Technique: Tutorializing introduces new mechanics in a safe, controlled way, letting players learn by doing instead of through heavy explanations.
Context: In my level, each enemy type is first presented in a dedicated scenario designed to teach its behavior and counters without overwhelming the player.
Technique Detail:
Monstrosity: Introduced as an unbeatable threat; the player learns to flee rather than fight, setting its role as a source of dread.
Zombie: First encountered from the high ground, giving players time and safety to practice ranged combat.
Hovering Sniper: Introduced with cover available, allowing players to observe its attacks and learn to dispel it from its origin point.
Vistas
Technique: Vistas show the main objective to orient and reinforce the final goal.
Context: In this level, vistas consistently bring the White Tower back into view, so even when the forest becomes confusing or threatening, the player always knows what they are striving toward.
Technique Detail:
The first framed view of the White Tower through the trees, signaling the distant goal beyond the altered forest.
A striking reveal after emerging from a subterranean section, using contrast between darkness and openness to reorient and motivate.
A mid-level viewpoint where the tower is seen from a new angle, reassuring players they are still on the right path.
Lighting Breadcrumbing
Technique: Light breadcrumbing uses subtle light sources to guide the player through dark or complex spaces. Instead of explicitly telling players where to go, it creates a natural pull toward points of interest, making navigation feel immersive and intuitive.
Context: Since much of the level takes place in a dark, eerie forest at night, light was a key tool for both mood and navigation. Players needed guidance without breaking immersion or relying on HUD elements.
Technique Detail:
Small clusters of glowing mushrooms light up dark paths, ensuring players don’t feel lost.
Light sources highlight critical traversal points, like platforms.
During fast, high-stress moments like chases, light trails act as instinctive guides, letting players focus on survival rather than navigation.
Walkthrough
Beat 1: Tutorial
Players begin in an introductory area that delivers narrative context, reveals a vista of the main objective, and introduces the first enemy encounters in a more controlled environment.
Beat 2: NPC area
In this section, players face the first easy enemies, meet an NPC who offers subtle, riddle-like clues and narrative context, and then choose between two distinct routes to progress through the level.
Beat 3A: Easy traversal
This section introduces the first minor difficulty spike, combining two enemy types with a platforming challenge to raise the tension.
Beat 4A: Ruin exploration 1
This area shifts into a ruin section, presenting a narrative mystery (where did this ruin come from?), a potential shortcut through puzzle-solving, and a level of verticality far greater than the natural forest areas.
Beat 5A: Difficult traversal
This area delivers a major spike in intensity with a platforming sequence where multiple sniper enemies harass the player until defeated. It features three possible entrances: two from Section 4A (depending on puzzle completion) and one from Section 5B (if the puzzle is solved).
Beat 6A: Ruin exploration 2
This ruin section brings all paths back together, featuring separate combat areas across three distinct levels and a puzzle solved by exploring two of them, while also offering environmental clues about the origins of the ruins.
Beat 3B: Ruin exploration 3
This ruin section shifts the pace and scenery by moving completely underground, featuring an optional puzzle with loot and traversal designed to heighten tension and unease; upon exiting, players are met with a vista of the objective that refocuses their attention and motivation.
Beat 4B: Easy fight
This area acts as a breather between ruin sextions, offering easy combat, light platforming, and a loot area that rewards players who take time to explore.
Beat 5B: Ruin exploration 4
This ruin area splits into two paths: upper and lower. The upper path contains a puzzle that, if solved correctly, leads to the 5A beat. If solved incorrectly, or if the lower path is chosen, the player is funneled into the 6B beat.
Beat 6B: Difficult fight
This section acts as a difficulty spike for players who skipped Section 5A, confronting them with a challenging combat encounter.
Beat 7: Final chase
This is the climax of the level: a chase sequence with platforming where the player must escape deadly enemies. It unfolds in two parts—the first is highly intense, followed by a short vertical platforming breather, and the second, slightly less intense, drives the player toward the end of the level.
Process Breakdown
Overview
1. Research, Ideation & Planning
Level Idea: A cursed forest. The player, a low-level squire, must navigate hostile terrain, avoid or fight monsters, and solve puzzles to reach a distant castle. Design emphasizes tension, psychological pressure, and spatial exploration.
Analyzing Games: Limbo inspired pacing and tone. Tomb Raider informed traversal structure and visual storytelling. Breath of the Wild influenced verticality and landmark-driven navigation.
Real-World References: Ruins, overgrowth, and terrain occlusion from real forests and castles guided exploration and informed tone.
Other Media: Adapted eerie forests and spiritual overtones from Princess Mononoke, The Two Towers, and Cabin in the Woods to reinforce themes of isolation, corruption, and escape.
2. Level Design Document
LDD: I created a level design document to keep track of the overall structure and information of the level, which includes:
- Level Objectives
- Narrative & Setting
- Gameplay Mechanics
- Level Beats
- Level Layout & Structure
- Enemies & NPCs
Beat Sheet: I built a colour-coded beat sheet outlining each section of the level and its intended gameplay type (traversal, combat, puzzle, etc.). It was redone after the pivot.
2D Map Layout: I created a 2D map to place all beats and gameplay spaces, also redone after the pivot.
3. First Roughout
Results: A first 3D roughout of the level, with multiple routes to give the player freedom of exploration. Introduced strong height variation to make traversal more engaging, and designated spaces for planned beats (exploration, puzzles, combat) to start shaping player flow.
Goal: Transform the 2D map and beat sheet into a first 3D iteration to test scale, proportions, and spatial relationships. The aim was to start “feeling” the level in 3D, validating the main routes, and preparing for iteration.
Execution:
Used the 2D map as a template and blocked out the main routes.
Extruded the layout upwards to create a playable 3D space.
Adjusted geometry and proportions on the fly when spaces felt off.
Focused on readability, flow, and route clarity during the roughout.
4. Playtest 1
Highlight 1: Whole level pivot
Results: This iteration required a complete redesign of the level. Instead of modifying the existing blockout, I restarted from the 2D stage to build a more intentional layout.
Feedback: Playtests showed the layout was too big and out of scope, and many platforms, corridors, and doors were too narrow, breaking flow.
Solutions: I restarted from the 2D stage to create a tighter layout and improved proportions for corridors, platforms, and doors to support smoother navigation.
Highlight 2: Better vistas
Results: The new version put greater emphasis on clear vistas to reduce confusion and help orient players.
Feedback: Playtests revealed that vistas were unclear and easy to miss, which weakened guidance and focus.
Solutions: I prioritized vistas as anchor points throughout the design, ensuring players always had a clear line of sight toward key objectives.
Highlight 3: More straight forward design
Results: The layout was rebuilt with purposeful spaces and a more straightforward path, reducing disorientation and pacing issues.
Feedback: Spaces felt confusing and difficult to navigate, block placement lacked intention, and long stretches of traversal lacked meaningful interaction.
Solutions: I reduced complexity by making the main path more linear and intuitive, and designed each area with a clear purpose: exploration, combat, or traversal.
5. PIVOT Roughout & Narrative Elements
Results: The pivot produced a clearer, more purposeful, and visually compelling level. The castle vista became an unavoidable anchor, the introduction taught mechanics gradually, and story dialogue tied to gameplay created smoother flow and stronger engagement.
Goal: Rebuild the level to address playtest issues—unclear layout, confusing navigation, and oversized scope—while adding clearer vistas, stronger spatial intention, and the first pass of narrative elements.
Execution:
Redrew the 2D map into a streamlined layout with two paths diverging at 1/3 and converging at 2/3.
Used the 2D as a flexible guide for shaping spaces in 3D.
Built areas with clear purpose: unavoidable vistas, readable exploration, and purposeful traversal.
Integrated story dialogue into the environment to enhance immersion.
6. Playtest 2
Highlight 1: Enemy ecosystem
Results: The next iteration introduced enemies and adjusted traversal to make the level more engaging. The enemy roster was defined with three types: zombies (baseline threat), hovering snipers (ranged pressure), and monstrosities (climactic encounters).
Feedback: Early playtests showed that the beginning felt repetitive and the level lacked challenge in its current state.
Solutions: Introduced a clear enemy ecosystem to increase challenge and variety, and placed enemies strategically to punctuate progression and escalate intensity.
Highlight 2: Wider platforms
Results: Platforms were widened to reduce frustration and improve flow, giving the level stronger pacing as it shifted from exploration to challenge.
Feedback: Some landing platforms were too narrow, making traversal punishing.
Solutions: Widened key platforms to give more margin for player error and ensure smoother traversal.
7. Enemy Placement
Results: This iteration added the first full enemy pass, making the level more engaging and varied. Encounters were paced with zombies as recurring threats, snipers creating tension spikes, and monstrosities driving narrative and climactic moments. The result was a clearer rhythm of exploration, combat, and escalation.
Goal: Introduce enemies to address the lack of challenge found in playtests, while using their placement to shape flow, highlight key spaces, and reinforce story beats.
Execution:
Defined three enemy types: zombies (baseline threat), snipers (ranged pressure), and monstrosities (set-pieces).
Distributed enemies to create rhythm and escalation.
Widened combat platforms to reduce frustration and focus challenge on enemies.
8. Playtest 3
Highlight 1: Additional cover
Results: Updated enemy placement made encounters fairer and easier to read. Added cover gave players space to react instead of feeling ambushed.
Feedback: Traversal felt unfair, with enemies ambushing in exposed spots.
Solutions: Added cover in exposed areas where the player faces multiple enemies.
Highlight 2: Enemy tutorial
Results: An early tutorial encounter for the hovering enemy clarified its behavior and how to defeat it.
Feedback: Hovering enemies were unclear, causing confusion.
Solutions: Introduced a tutorial encounter with the hovering enemy early in the level to explain mechanics.
Highlight 3: Forest details
Results: Fall damage was reworked with intentional kill zones, making platforming challenges feel deliberate rather than punishing. Natural turns and scattered trees also improved readability and created a stronger forest atmosphere.
Feedback: Automatic fall damage felt punishing, and the blocky layout didn’t read as a forest, hurting immersion.
Solutions: Replaced automatic fall damage with kill zones in platforming areas, and refined the environment with natural turns, trees, and organic detail to reinforce the forest theme.
9. Scripting
Results: This iteration enriched the level with scripting for variety and depth. Puzzles broke up the pace, hovering enemy improvements made encounters more engaging, and the climactic chase delivered a strong finale. Audio barks replaced text for smoother narrative cues, and applying earlier feedback (cover, tutorials, fall mechanics, natural elements) made encounters fairer and the forest more convincing.
Goal: Refine the level while using scripting to improve gameplay, pacing, and narrative delivery.
Execution:
Added puzzles to vary rhythm and break up combat.
Improved hovering enemy mechanics with a clear tutorial.
Scripted a climactic chase at the end.
Replaced text with audio barks for natural guidance.
Applied environmental tweaks (cover, turns, trees) for fairness and immersion.
10. Playtest 4
Highlight 1: More breathing room
Results: The introduction now feels more paced and approachable, giving players room to learn without pressure.
Feedback: The intro area felt rushed and cramped.
Solutions: Expanded the tutorial space and repositioned the first enemy to give players breathing room and a natural advantage.
Highlight 2: Additional resources
Results: Adding health, ammo, collectibles, and a checkpoint system made progression smoother and reduced frustration after failure.
Feedback: The lack of health, ammo, and checkpoints made progression frustrating.
Solutions: Added resources and checkpoints in exploration rewards (cul-de-sacs) and after intensity peaks to balance pacing.
Highlight 3: Removed miniboss
Results: Replacing the disjointed miniboss with a more cohesive combat challenge maintained intensity without breaking immersion, making flow more consistent.
Feedback: The miniboss fight felt disconnected from the level and the area felt empty.
Solutions: Removed the miniboss and replaced it with a hard combat encounter that better fits the level’s flow.
11. Lighting
Results: The new lighting gave the level a stronger night atmosphere, reinforcing the mood of tension and isolation without losing gameplay clarity. Bioluminescent mushrooms added ambience and practical guidance, subtly leading players through darker areas while maintaining immersion.
Goal: Establish a night setting that supports the tone of unease and vulnerability, while still ensuring clear navigation and spatial understanding.
Execution:
Added a night sky and adjusted lighting parameters to create a convincing environment.
Placed bioluminescent mushrooms to brighten areas where ambient light wasn’t enough.
Used mushrooms as subtle guides, helping players find their way without breaking immersion.
12. Playtest 5
Highlight 1: Additional forest and terrain
Results: The forest now feels more immersive and natural, with added trees and context that better conceal the playable bounds. This reinforced the sense of being in a dense, mysterious environment.
Feedback: The forest looked too bare, and the visible level limits broke immersion.
Solutions: Populated the forest with additional trees, terrain details, and visual barriers to hide edges and strengthen immersion.
Highlight 2: Additional cover
Results: Cover was added to the hovering enemy tutorial, giving players more confidence and room to experiment as they learn counters.
Feedback: The hovering tutorial enemy felt intimidating without enough cover, making players uneasy.
Solutions: Introduced cover elements in the tutorial fight area to make the first encounter with the hovering enemy more approachable.
Highlight 3: More detailed atmosphere
Results: The large platforming section was redefined with a creepy fog pool and enclosing rock walls, transforming it into a haunted quarry-like space that better fits the eerie forest tone.
Feedback: The large platforming area felt out of place and was difficult to read as part of the world.
Solutions: Added a fog pool to signal danger and unease, reinforcing the haunted forest atmosphere, and built a rock wall enclosure to frame the space as a natural quarry within the forest.
13. Worldbuilding & Polish
Results: The level gained a stronger atmosphere, balancing tension and isolation with moments of discovery. Added worldbuilding details and environmental storytelling made spaces feel more lived-in and sustained immersion across progression and intensity beats.
Goal: Polish the level by adding environmental storytelling, expanding worldbuilding, and enriching immersion with small narrative details that give players more reasons to explore.
Execution:
Introduced terrain and tree foliage to frame the level more naturally and soften boundaries.
Designed storytelling areas to reinforce themes: burnt structures, NPC locations, ruins decay, and contextual props.