Our final course, before the planned internship, was the Graduation Project, where we were given free reins to create whatever we felt that we wanted to improve upon. Me having an interest in Level Design, wanted to improve upon my level and world creation abilities, along with level dressing and general usage of Unreal Engine. So I designed a level, thought to be a part of a first-person survival/crafting game, set in a post-apocalyptic open world. This particular area, the Radio Tower, would be one of many points of interest that the Player could stumble upon during their travels.

• Fallout 3 – Intended mood and art style
• Red Dead Redemption – Open world
• Ghost of Tsushima – Open world
• Sickla kaj (Stockholm, Sweden)– Specific areas/points of interest

The game would unfold in a Swedish setting, in the aftermath of nuclear war. Fallout was a major inspiration to this project regarding the post-apocalyptic theme, but the scenery was highly influenced by a certain location, called Sickla kaj.

The art and assets used are low poly. Most are from a bundle purchased from the Synty Store and imported to Unreal Engine. For the mood, I took inspiration from Fallout 3, but I didn’t have the realistic assets/props needed for me to be able to design the level more in line with Fallout. So I utilized what I already had available. However, the big radio tower is made by me inside the engine, using the binary space partitioning (BSP) and then turned into a static mesh.

Some of the assets and textures were unfortunately not compatible with usage of the foliage tool. So instead, they were hand placed. This was time consuming, but on the other hand, provided opportunities to really think everything through and I really learned a lot from this project.

Casual gamers who like action, exploration, crafting, and base building games would enjoy this. The level provides multiple paths below and above ground level, houses and cars to loot, and open as well as crowded areas. It would fit many different preferences regarding playing style, for example close combat in the tunnel system or camping on roof-tops.

I decided to focus my attention on the level and world creation, as well as dressing the level. The level was made with real world layouts in mind. The landscape architecture of Sweden is unique and it was important to stay true to it. So the level was structured and the assets placed accordingly. Stockholm is made up of different islands and very few areas are flat. There’s often varying height differences, a mix between historical and modern architecture, large apartment complexes, and a lot of greenery, which is reflected in my level. In Stockholm, there are a lot of pedestrians and the public transport system is important. So sidewalks were essential to get the Swedish feel. The blocks are rarely completely square shaped, so I needed to add twists and turns when placing the roads and houses.

Regarding the post-apocalyptic theme, the idea was that the nuclear war had taken place somewhere else on our planet. Therefore, Sweden was not burnt to ashes, but highly radioactive, which affected nature. “Life will always find its way” is a common saying, and it really applies to this context. Life has recovered, but some areas are more radioactive than others. For example, rain has accumulated into small ponds – killing off plants nearby. This environment would be a good fit for how I envisioned the game to turn out, once finished. It would go well with having radioactivity cause damage to the Player’s health. For example, the Player would need to plan their actions and utilize consumables or buffs to collect objects in highly radioactive areas.

The idea was that the nuclear war had resulted in local civil wars. This needed to be reflected in the surroundings.

I wanted to give the Player a lot of freedom of movement, so I added many different variations in height. For example, ladders (highlighted by their yellow color and lanterns) and makeshift bridges between buildings, as well as different vehicles that the Player can climb up on, in order to get access to roofs, to get away from, or gain advantages against the enemies that will be added to the game at a later stage of this project.

The reason I wanted to include the big radio tower in the project, was because it would serve as a really good landmark, due to its sheer size and unforgettable design. I would also, at a later stage in the project, have it serve as a base for the Player, where they can rest, build things, accept missions and travel to another area by zipline from the very top of the tower to a ski resort located close by. Once there, they would be able to enter a huge tunnel system underground, that would eventually lead them out to a completely new location.

I tried my hand at environmental storytelling, similar to that which can be seen in the Fallout games.

Many of the assets that I had purchased either had their collision boxes awfully applied or straight up missing all together, so they had to be added or fixed intermittently as I discovered it throughout the course of the project.

These are the first sketches and ideas of what I had in mind for the project:

Tower and city landscape.

Sneak peak into the radio tower. The door is blocked… There must be another way in there.

A park.

One of the possible routes to take from the park (down in the valley) and up to the large apartment complexes (higher up in the mountains). In the background, you can see a crashed military aircraft.

A tank drove through the park, left tracks across the lawn, pushed streetlights over, and blew a hole in the radio tower.

Next to the military zone? One of the entrances to the tunnel system!

View from within the tunnel entrance.

Down in the tunnel system.

Within the tunnel system – another tunnel! I paid close attention to storytelling when placing assets. For example, in the picture below, the rubble shows in which direction the wall was initially broken down.

Assymmetry was essential for a realistic feel.

The tunnel system is connected to the radio tower.

There are several floors to climb.

The project is ongoing, so more content will be uploaded in the future. My current plan is to continue placing assets (for example greenery) to further enhance the level. So going forward, I need to try to figure out why the foliage tool does not work with my assets. Currently, the buildings are accessible, but most are empty. I intend to finish the interior of the buildings, so that the Player will be able to enter them to look for loot and resources needed for survival and crafting. I also need to add NPC:s and enemies, consumables and different health meters, crafting material, and develop more levels, such as the ski resort the Player can access through a zipline. The finished game would need mechanics for interacting with objects (for example looting, building, and operating vehicles), audio effects, and programming (for example multiple choices and consequences of actions).

In-game footage will be recorded and uploaded to YouTube within short.