Level design process

Abyssal Dread

How I designed and lit Level 1, The Prison, from map layout to final lighting.

Game overview
LevelLevel 1: The Prison
My levelsTutorial, Level 1, Level 3, Boss
My roleLevel, environment & lighting
EngineUnreal Engine
Featured level
Abyssal Dread, Level 1: The Prison

Level 1: The Prison

A multi-layered prison built for fast first-person melee, with Doom-style pacing and Lovecraft-inspired lighting.

What to look at

  • Stacked layers keep a large space readable without slowing the combat.
  • Enemy spawns and pickups are placed to pace the fight.
  • Problem areas found in playtesting were reshaped before polish.
Read the full breakdown
Level gallery

Maps, blockouts and before/after shots.

Skills

What this level work built

Encounter designSpawns and pickups that pace fast melee.
LightingLighting four levels for mood and direction.
Playtest-led iterationReshaping spaces where players got lost.
Full breakdownThe design process in detail

Inspiration

The level design takes its pace from classic boomer shooters like Doom. The lighting, themes and atmosphere draw on H.P. Lovecraft. The main prison in Level 1 takes its structure from the prison in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1, which gave a well-organised space with multiple layers.

Process

  • Plan: many iterations of the map layout, planned and drawn out before anything was built.
  • Block out: a visual version of the level used to test variations, flow and fit with the game's theme and style.
  • Develop: playtesting to find where players got confused or lost, then adjusting the space in response.
  • Polish: replacing blockout with the artists' assets and lighting each level with help from the artists, iterating throughout.