Sea: Officially Lost is an underwater survival horror game. The player is sent to an underwater research laboratory to investigate the disappearance of the whole crew. To be able to solve this mystery and understand the other worldly powers at play in the crew’s disappearance the player will have to explore both the research facility and the dark depths surrounding it, exposing themselves to unknown and mysterious deep sea creatures.

You can play the game here: https://lanthos.itch.io/sea-officially-lost

Sea: Officially Lost was developed alongside the Gamkedo club. My role in this project focused on its overall level design, from conceptualization, to design, and development. I used my architectural background to tackle this challenge looking to first understand the narrative and gameplay goals we wanted for this project to design for it holistically. I started exploring various diagrams of spatial structures for the seabed terrain, and then proceeded to create variations of ideas via sketches to communicate to the team the possibilities of the overall level design.

I then started developing the seabed level arranging all of the components like specific locations, items to be hidden, enemy spawn locations and general scenery and player navigation experience. I then proceeded to finish the level model by texturing it, and creating and placing environmental assets. I also gave design direction and layout planning for the research lab and contributed asset models like chairs, tables and artifacts to populate the lab spaces and modeled and animated the turbine structure.

When starting to design I like to understand the overall components before developing anything. My design process usually starts with some sort of diagram where I can explore the core concept I am designing for. In this case, I started with Venn diagrams to understand the possible spatial relationships that would make sense inside the established game’s narrative and game play framework for the level.

With these diagrams, we were able to understand how to conceptualize, incorporate and differentiate man-made environments like the research lab vs the sea environment from which the levels would be made of. We were able to explore their possible relationships and their design possibilities from each configuration, helping us understand better how we could move forward with the level design that best developed our overall goals.

Once we decided on an overall spatial relationship, I used it as a framework to develop and explore the level’s design. I created various sketches to communicate the different paths we could take at the time with the possibilities that were on the table for the game’s overall development. Through these sketches I explored components like methods to limit the level without making it obvious to the player, overall locations and level topography alongside other design considerations at the time.

Once the team agreed on a design direction,I started researching underwater landscapes looking to understand where in the water column our game was taking place. I then started studying the particular underwater landscape to better comprehend the nature of the topography that the level would emulate to best replicate reality. Once I had a general model of the topography I liked aesthetically, I focused on studying narrative destinations in the level, game play, and player navigation. This level featured four locations that the player could visit: the research lab, fumarole ridge, airplane crash site and the hidden plateau.

Three of these four sites hosted artifacts that the player had to collect to be able to unravel the mystery. The player was dependent on a limited amount of air resource whenever exploring the seabed level and that resource needed to be constantly refueled by collecting airpods, I wanted to make sure that the navigation experience I was creating was viable and balanced. I documented how much time it took the player to navigate to each destination where an artifact had to be collected using the research lab as the anchor point since that is the place where the air pods where mainly acquired. I also documented the radius of exploration to understand how much further the player could explore once the artifact was collected from a specific destination. With this diagram we could better understand the player experience we were creating and better design for it.

The seabed level also has specific creature types roaming its darkness. The diagram below places specific enemy types in certain locations of the level and suggests an overall area for their encounter. Each enemy creature is placed in a manner where it makes sense in relation to its level environment, for example: the goblin shark is in the more open areas and the spider crab is in the trenches and ridges. But, the player experience was also a big consideration point to place the enemy creatures in specific parts of the level. The player navigation trajectory and world exploration was studied to be able to place the creatures in the optimal location to create the most suspense and impact when encountering these creatures with the limited visibility afforded to the player when exploring the seabed level.

Part of SOL’s level design included the research laboratory. This space was where the player obtained most of the information to solve the mystery and where the gear to navigate the exterior was to be collected. As such, I conceptualized this lab space as one that had to feel itself like the riddle the player was trying to understand, but couldn’t be overly complex as to frustrate the player navigating it. I ended up designing the lab level as a string of spaces that progressed linearly or that bifurcated once, but that was easily re-traceable. The intent of this design was for the player to perceive the lab spaces as initially complex, but that at a second glance the player was able to comprehend it.

The research lab level looked to include spaces that would be found in any ordinary living quarters, like kitchen and dormitories, but integrated with research and underwater station spaces, like laboratories, mechanical areas and a turbine structure. The inside of the lab was made to feel enclosed and almost claustrophobic with the overall shell of it made from steel panels assembled together to be able to withstand the deep sea pressures.