Level Design Projects
BRUTALIST SCI-FI COMPANY
Outline of the narrative beat, and 2D layout of a corporate building designed with Brutalist architecture—clean, imposing lines, and stark concrete textures dominate the space.
The player enters the lobby, where they receive their daily mission from a NPC. Afterward, they head to a designated area to collect their gear, a sleek set of tools and equipment essential for the day’s task. Finally, the player proceeds to the science lab, a high-tech environment where time travel experiments take place, ready to embark on a journey through time.
CYBERPUNK ROOM
Following a similar process, I started with a narrative beat. But I kept it short because I wanted to explore the art aspect of level design.
I did a simple 2D layout, taking from my experience of living in crowded places in Hong Kong, where the cyberpunk aesthetic was inspired by.
I knew the Cyberpunk aesthetic uses a lot of blue and magenta light, but I didn't know how to clutter the room with lights. So I went onto Pinterest for some lighting inspirations.
After doing a simple grey-box in Unreal 5e, I wanted to add some polish and lighting to the scene in Photoshop before committing to the more expensive and time-consuming asset production.
Once I was happy with how it looked in the paintover, I moved to Maya to model the rest of the furniture.
After modeling the level in Maya, I imported the assets into Unreal 5e and placed them into the level. I reused some models but rotated and scaled them to create diversity in visuality.
These are screenshots of the final level.
CHINESE TEMPLE & GARDEN
Although I am familiar with Chinese culture, I was not familar with the architechture. I used this project as a chance to do some research on some traditional temples in China.
I developed a typical linear narrative and put most of my focus on the layout and framing of the level.
Chinese gardening is very specific about how they frame the nature around them, I used the pavilion as a lookout point to the rocks in the lake.
The columns of the pavilion frames the rock in a way that is similar to a vertical layout of traditional inik and wash Chinese drawing (山水畫).
The tall mountain also resembles the mountains hidden in fog, inspired by Xia Gui 夏圭, a painter and poet from the Song Dynasty.
As seen in the 2D and isometric sketches, the temple is not very big. I got plenty of feedback about the scale of the level, and eventually decide to double the size of the level to match that grand feeling when you step foot in a temple.
I also changed the path up the mountain from all front to circling the mountain.
Although it looks aesthetic in the sketches, it felt very different in first person perspective. The slopes were cramped and too steep. Wrapping the path around the mountain allowed more walking time and a longer path, thus a smoother rise to the mountain.