Busan University
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Game: Ground Zero
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Genre: Third Person (Fixed Perspective) Survival Horror
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Type: Singleplayer
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Created as Lead Level Designer at Malformation Games
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Available on: Steam, PS5, XBOX Series X|S
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Level Development Time: 1-2 months
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Engine: Unreal Engine 5
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Team Size: between 6-10
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Length: about 1 hour
Busan University is the primary location featured in Chapter 6 of Ground Zero's main story. It is a large university that has been built around a museum.
After narrowly making it across a bridge in the middle of a hurricane, Seo-Yeon and Evan arrive at Busan University. HQ has instructed Seo-Yeon to enter the university and upgrade her scanner, so that she can hopefully provide more intel about the mysterious growths overtaking the country.
I chose to feature this level because it showcases my ability to design interesting interior spaces with multiple floors, work with Animators & Programmers to implement interesting combat encounters, and work together with fellow Level and Environment Artists to create entirely unique sets of in-house art.
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Production
The University level sits at about the midpoint of Ground Zero's campaign and is an extremely important level to the plot. During the brainstorming phase, we talked amongst the team to gather ideas for an initial location to base the level on. Since Malformation is a Swedish game studio, many members of the team thought it would be cool to feature a location from Sweden in the game.
The Game Director and I ended up settling on Naturhistoriska riksmuseet, which is Swedish for Museum of Natural History. Afterward, our Environment Artist went to the location in person and took plenty of photos to be used as reference material for custom meshes and also for me to begin planning the level.
To make the level feel more identifiable to the Korean setting of the game, I decided I also wanted to incorporate elements of Yonsei University, a real life college campus in Seoul, South Korea. Yonsei is a much more clean and modern looking establishment, which was a fun dynamic to balance with the gothic style of the Museum of Natural History.
By this point in the project's development, we had welcomed a dedicated Level Artist onto the team who directly worked with me on many of the game's remaining levels, including this one. I created the initial blockouts for most of the areas, and our Level Artist and Environment Artist worked together with me to create new assets and add them into the level. I assisted and gave feedback where necessary and made one final polish pass on the level in the final months of the project.
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Design
References
Museum of Natural History in Stockholm, Sweden
Museum Interior Lobby
Yonsei University courtyard
A large atrium / study hall in Yonsei University
Topdown & Flowchart
Initial topdown of the interior sections of the level.
This underwent many changes during the course of development
Initial flowchart for the level.
This underwent many changes during the course of development
Blockout
Front of the university
Lobby area
University courtyard
Circular staircase leading up to the telescope
Final Result
Front entrance of the University
Main Lobby
Courtyard
Atrium
Study Hall
I wanted to take a moment to highlight the contributions of both Prateek Karajgikar (Level & Environment Art) and Sixten Augustsson (Environment & Hard Surface Art) to the above areas and the level in general. Sixten made an entire array of custom art for this level, and Prateek's amazing detail work really brought the scenes to life.
Couldn't have done this without either one of them!
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Level Flow
1. Enter the University
2. Fight the raptors
3a. Collect the screwdriver
3b. Collect the 1st projector slide
3c. Collect the security override disk
4. T-Rex encounter #1
5. Unlock the west wing
6a. Collect the projector lens
6b. Collect the 2nd projector slide
6c. Collect the 3rd projector slide
7. Upgrade your scanner
8. T-Rex encounter #2
9. Fight through the courtyard
10. T-Rex boss fight
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Gameplay
Verticality
Compared to most levels in Ground Zero, the University level features a decent amount of verticality.
The main lobby sits at the base of a tall tower, with one of the primary objectives being to access an observatory at the top of a long winding staircase.
Meanwhile, the rest of the level is spread across 3 separate floors with the gameplay flow requiring moving between floors fairly often.
I found this kind of design to work best for this level since we wanted to keep the overall size of the level somewhat small. By building upward instead of outward, I was able to fit more content within a smaller space.
The winding staircase leading to the observatory
Projector Puzzle
The level's central puzzle involves finding 3 projector slides, which when viewed at the same time using a projector, forms a specific pattern. This pattern is used to program an upgrade for the character's wrist gadget, allowing them to proceed further in the story.
The 3 projector slides are randomized from a pool of 9 to create a multitude of potential solutions so that repeat playthroughs of the game don't feel too similar.
Most of the in-game implementation for this puzzle was implemented by the Programmer, as it is heavily UI-based, but I was responsible for building the physical spaces for the puzzle and also setting up the randomization logic.
The 9 projector slides spawn out of bounds.
3 are picked at random and teleported to preset positions in the level
Statue Puzzle
A prominent secondary puzzle involves a set of animal statues with colored lights. In an adjacent room, there are buttons on the wall that correspond to each of the statues. In order the solve the puzzle, the buttons have to be pressed in a specific order.
I created a short riddle that vaguely describes the order of the button presses by using geographical features (ie: forest, beach, mountain) to represent the colors. Through this riddle, the player learns the order that the colors have to be considered.
Then, to solve the puzzle, the player has to visit the statue room and take a mental note of which colors correspond to which statue, which in turn reveals the solution.
The colored statues and their buttons
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Encounters
The primary encounter and main thread of the University level is the T-Rex boss.
The design goal with the T-Rex was to feel like a stalker enemy that constantly chases the player around and creates a massive amount of tension, culminating in a significant payoff when they finally defeat him.
This is carried out over the course of the level in several parts:
Part 1: Buildup
In the main lobby of the University, the player is given a frontal view of a large T-Rex skeleton on display.
As the player continues to complete objectives and solve puzzles, infestation slowly takes over the skeleton until the T-Rex itself eventually reanimates.
The beauty in this effect is in its subtlety. In terms of level logic, all of the events that cause the skeleton to progress in its mutation take place outside of this room. Thus, the player never actually gets to observe it changing in real-time. If they return to this room and notice the skeleton changing, they might be inclined to ask themselves: "did that change? or is it my imagination?".
By the time the T-Rex reaches his last phase and reanimates, the skeleton eerily disappears from the lobby altogether, now signaling to the player that something has definitely gone wrong. This brings on a feeling of dread and makes the player wonder if/when/where he might attack.
The T-Rex skeleton undergoing its varying mutations
Part 2: Raptor Attack Sequence
Eventually, the player reaches the Dinorama Room, a large exhibit that contains many statues of small and large dinosaurs. Scattered around are several raptor statues in different poses that almost seem alive, but aren't actually moving.
The design intent is to make players anticipate that the raptors will eventually reanimate, but feel a sense of dread in not knowing exactly when that may (or may not) happen.
Eventually, the raptors do wake up after completing some of the level's objectives. The Game Director, myself, and our 3D Animator worked together to create interesting entrance animations for the raptors that allow them to enter the arena to attack and swarm the player, as opposed to them already being awake and simply standing around waiting to attack.
These scripted animations are triggered by level Blueprint logic that was set up by me. I placed the triggers in a way that plays on the player's state of mind. If they panic and try to run away, they're likely to run into more triggers, spawning even more raptors.
Just a normal raptor statue... or is it?
The raptors attack
Part 3: T-Rex Stalking
By this point in the level, the T-Rex is fully active, and begins stalking the player.
He appears at specific areas and attacks the player, disappearing shortly afterward. During these encounters, he cannot be killed, but can be weakened and slowed down by attacks. He often arrives with raptors for support that attempt to pin the player.
Outside of the direct encounters, there are also several moments where the T-Rex can be seen moving around in the background in areas that the player can't actually reach, just to remind them that he is still around.
The first T-Rex appearance
Part 4: Courtyard Gauntlet
Just before the final boss fight, the player enters the university's central courtyard, where the T-Rex and many raptors are lying in wait. This area is very large and open, with the only goal being to make it to the end alive.
The T-Rex is placed such that he comes from behind the player, which encourages the player to move forward. Meanwhile, the raptors approach the player from the front, making the encounter very hectic and strongly encouraging the player to make use of the game's dodge and parry mechanics.
Finally, to up the tension even more, I placed several items in precarious positions around the arena, creating a dilemma for players. If they want to collect the items, they'll either need to kill off all of the enemies, or be very quick on their feet!
Running the gauntlet
Part 5: T-Rex Boss Fight
Finally, the player makes it to the university's stadium to engage in the final boss fight.
This fight is broken up into two main phases:
Phase 1
When starting the fight, the player is attacked by the T-Rex and a few raptors.
As the player moves around the arena, raptors will jump in to attack, using several contextual animations created by our 3D Animator and triggered by Blueprint logic.
Raptors enter the arena
Phase 2
After some time passes (dependent on difficulty), Seo-Yeon's partner, Evan, will arrive carrying a Javelin rocket launcher and instruct the player to use flares to mark the T-Rex so that the rockets can lock onto it.
I placed several boxes of flares around the arena that have a few flares in each of them. They are all placed in positions that are somewhat dangerous, such as in dead ends or corners, which forces the player to be mindful about when they attempt to pick up and light the flares, since doing so locks them in an animation for a short time and leaves them defenseless.
After lighting a flare, the player can throw it, which causes Evan to launch a rocket at the location that the flare lands. This can be used to deal significant damage to the T-Rex, stunning it for a brief time.
This also spawns extra raptors to attack the player, which jump into the arena to attack. I created custom Blueprint logic that spawns between 1-5 raptors (depending on difficulty) from a maximum pool of 30, and then picks a random preset location to spawn each one. This keeps the player guessing and overall helps the encounter feel fresh even across multiple playthroughs.
Attacking the T-Rex with the javelin
Snippet of Blueprint logic used to spawn support raptors (click to enlarge)
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Video Walkthrough