ABANDONED SPACESHIP
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TIME PERIOD: 2 weeks (2017)
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TEAM SIZE: Solo
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ENGINE: Unreal Engine 4
I created this project to showcase my level-design expertise, sense of pacing, technical skills, creativity, and ability to explain design decisions.
PLAYTHROUGH
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MISSION OBJECTIVE:
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Board and explore what appears to be an abandoned spaceship. Verify it’s safe for your crew to begin a surgical salvage operation.
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PACING
CURIOUS
OBSERVANT
UNEASY
CAUTIOUS
SUSPENSEFUL
CORNERED
PRESSURED
URGENT
DIRE
CRITICAL
SAFE
1: START
PACING
CURIOUS
YOU ARE
HERE
When the player starts the level, a sound of a door closing is played, and the screen fades in from black. The player is now presented with a tutorial message in the top left corner on how to control the character and how the player can toggle the flashlight. The player will notice that there is no gravity. Objects in the room are floating, and the player character is controlled with a jet propulsion system. To make sure the player has understood the controls – and not to be presented with too much information at once – the player will get a radio message when the player has moved forward a bit. The message is from one of the crew members telling the player to make sure the ship is safe for the crew to enter.
2: DARK CORRIDORS
PACING
OBSERVANT
This section is built so the player has time to understand how the flying works. When the player gets into the lift shaft, the player will have to fly up to the next floor and will have to fly through a corridor before making it into the main hall. The tutorial message stays on until the player has moved up to the next floor. It is very dark and silent in here, making the player feel suspense.
3: MAIN HALL
PACING
UNEASY
When the player gets into the main hall and passes by a scanner, the player will hear a robotic voice telling the player a bit of a story and that the ship is currently in power maintenance mode (which explains the silence and darkness) – and to regain access to all the ship functions, the reactor core needs to be activated.
The quest text is updated from “Explore the ship” to “Find a way into the reactor core” and it is up to the player to find a way in.
To avoid too much confusion, a map is placed in front of the player, and the floor has lines guiding the player where rooms are located.
When the player finds the door to the reactor core, the player will notice that the door is closed.
There are also other closed rooms with windows so the player can see what is inside.
One of the rooms contains the escape pods, and the other room contains cryo sleep beds that are lit up, giving the player a hint that there might be people inside those cryo sleep beds.
4: CONTROL ROOM
PACING
CAUTIOUS
The player is guided in the right direction with light coming from a little robot bobbing up and down inside a small control room. There is also a cable on the ground leading from the reactor core door to the room the robot is in.
When the player gets close to the robot, it will start to talk and say, e.g, “You are not allowed to be here” and “There is nothing for you to salvage here”.
The robot is there to add story elements, flavour, and guidance for the player.
To get inside the room, the player needs to fly up and go through the roof of the room. When the player is inside, the player will see a computer that can be interacted with – And from here, the door to the reactor core can be opened.
5: TO THE REACTOR CORE
PACING
SUSPENSEFUL
When the player enters the door that leads to the reactor core, the player seems at first glance to have stepped into a dead end.
Mysterious music is played, and the player can hear a faint sound of humming machinery. Lights coming from below are here to guide and lead the player downwards.
By flying down, the player can enter the reactor core from the roof.
6: REACTOR CORE
PACING
CORNERED
When the player has entered the room of the reactor core, the quest text is updated from “Find a way into the reactor core” to “Activate the reactor core”.
When the player hits the button, gravity is turned on, and the player character and objects will fall down to the floor. Lights will turn on and eventually… the ship will detect an intruder – the player! The security system is engaged, and the player can hear a sounding alarm. The player has to shoot down 4 enemy turrets that successively appear from the ground.
Objects that fell down to the floor work as cover for the player.
When the turrets are dealt with, the ship is programmed to initialize a self-destruct sequence and ask all personnel to find the nearest escape pods and exit.
The player might remember that the escape pods are a room located right next to the main hall where the player just came from, but the player is not able to fly back up. So the player needs to find another way.
The ship is starting to count down to when the self-destruct will happen, and this section of the level is designed to be very stressful from now on.
7: CARGO BAY
PACING
PRESSURED
Since the reactor core is now active, all lights on the ship from now on are turned on.
The player first has to pass through a corridor where a tutorial message will appear, telling the player that it is possible to sprint to move faster.
In the next room, 3 new enemy turrets will appear. The player has a choice here. To just run or shoot the turrets down. If the player is fast, it is possible to just run past them and proceed to the lift. But there should be enough time for the player to shoot them down.
The player should also begin to hear faint explosions, and the ship will start to shake and vibrate – raising the feel of urgency.
After the first explosion, the player will get a worried radio message from one of the crew members, telling the player to come back to the ship at once.
8: ELEVATOR
PACING
URGENT
After dealing with or running past the enemy turrets, the player can enter an elevator. At the push of a button, the elevator starts to go up.
The elevator is very slow for a reason – To build up tension and urgency.
9: CRYO CHAMBER
PACING
DIRE
When reaching the end destination of the elevator, the player is now on the top layer of the level again – in the cryo chamber. The player might recognize the room if they looked through the windows from the main hall at the beginning of the level.
I wanted the player to run through this section of the level before escaping to remind the player that there are people in the cryo sleep beds, and unfortunately, there is nothing you can do to save them.
If this level were part of a bigger game, this would be something that could lead to consequences and add to the story later in the game.
10: MAIN HALL
PACING
CRITICAL
The player is now in the main hall again, and the map is once again presented in front of the player to help the player navigate (the map can be viewed from both sides).
The robot you met before is now hostile and is flying around frantically in the room, and when the robot sees the player, it will shoot the player.
If I had time, I would also place debris in front of the doors to the reactor core and the start section (the place is falling apart after all, from all the explosions), but I locked the doors to make sure the player doesn’t take the wrong way.
11: ESCAPE PODS
PACING
SAFE
And finally, after a period of high-paced intensity, the player has reached the escape pods and can use one to finish the level. When the level ends, the player will hear a fitting sound and be presented with the end screen.
If this level were part of a bigger game, I imagine this would create a mystery about what kind of ship it was and why it was set to self-destruct if it were to find a threat inside. Maybe it contained valuable information or items inside? Maybe someone would find out that you were the reason the ship blew up, and you made a lot of enemies?
Note: Everything was scripted by me, in Unreal Engine 4. All 3D models that were used are from the “SciFi ‘Props’ Pack” and “SciFi ‘Populate’ Pack” on the UE4 marketplace and the free UE4 example projects. Most of the sounds were created or edited by me, and a few others were found at freesound.org