Once and for All

First Person Action Adventure
Singleplayer
Unreal Engine 5
Solo Developed
Iterated upon multiple playtests
Assets used: Blockout Tool, UltraDynamicSky, Posed People for ArchViz, and Interactive Open World Foliage

In the future the government has taken over Eternity City. You are an ex-rebel leader who has lost the will to fight until you got a lead that might just give the city the chance it needs to end this never ending oppression.

Goals

World Driven Narrative

Players should be exploring spaces and learning about the story through those spaces

Refine my Blockout Workflow

I want to really practice working on my process going from roughout to final polish in my blockouts

Practice Driving Player Feeling

Throughout development I wanted to work on creating moments that help sell a feeling that I am trying to make the player feel

Before and After Overview

Roughout

Blockout Timelapse

Level Flow

Beat 1: Subway Arrival

Beat 4: Stealth Combat in the Alley

Beat 2: Explore Main Courtyard

Beat 5: Find way to Sewers

Beat 7: Solve Sewer Puzzle

Technique Highlights

My approach: I used a lot of npc models to help sell the world that I was creating. Created a lot of situations where the government will be oppressing civilians.

Moving Train at the beginning of the level

Environmental Storytelling

Beat 3: Platform Across Districts

Vistas and Goal Reinforcement

My approach: I use vistas like this to frame and remind the player of what their goal is throughout the level.

I try to highlight the landmarks importance by keeping it in front of you and the biggest building on the screen. You are also traveling towards it for most of the level until you reach the sewers.

My approach: With these kinds of spaces I try to pinch the player into a smaller space to make them feel small then open up for some better composition when they enter a puzzle space.

Funnel to Reveal

Beat 6: Explore Sewers

Playtesting & Iterations

Main Courtyard Space

Gameplay & Scripting

Sequencers

I used sequencers a lot for all the different elements that have movement in my level like the train that you start on at the beginning of the level.

Police Blockade moment in Main Courtyard

Security Cameras

While deep in production I wanted to add more world building elements to make the player feel like they were under that feeling of oppression so I added security cameras that will stare at you when you walk by.

Back to Top

Giant Sewer Door

Extra Screenshots

Preproduction

Spent a lot of time ideating on ideas and trying to figure out what this world that I was creating would look like.

Boneworks

Inspiration

While in the ideation phase I analyze games that I am inspiring my level on.

Half Life 2

How: Wanted the level to feed into the feeling of oppression and Half Life 2’s gameplay experience does that perfectly

Boneworks

Cyberpunk 2077

How: Cyberpunks Aesthetic was a direct inspiration for building architecture and different space’s looks.

After

Solution

Knowing all of this I decided to plan out the layout of the space by giving the player a few different options in how they can tackle this challenge.

I decided that the space would be a dirty alleyway that has a bar on the side. Some enemies were having drinks and some were trying to keep watch and were serious about their job as policeman.