SCRAPS — From Blockout to Final
Scraps is set in a post-apocalyptic world where survivors live among the remains of a civilization destroyed during the Fall. The player takes the role of a mercenary who accepts contracts from the people of Bastion, a wealthy city built around those who still have the resources to hire others to venture beyond its safety.
In this section of the game, the player is sent to investigate an abandoned facility containing pre-Fall technology while also searching for a missing child. What begins as a routine contract gradually raises questions about the facility, its past, and whether the child’s disappearance is as simple as it first appears.
This page follows the level from its early planning and blockout through iteration and final implementation, focusing on the areas I designed and developed.
Preproduction
Describe your image
Describe your image
Before building the level in Unreal Engine, I mapped out the intended progression through a hand-drawn layout and bubble diagram. These were used to establish the sequence of spaces, puzzle locations, transitions, and overall player path before moving into blockout.
The layout evolved during implementation and playtesting, but the core progression established during preproduction remained the foundation of the final level.
Level - Start
The opening section was designed around maintaining constant player engagement and avoiding long stretches of uninterrupted movement. My goal was to give the player a meaningful action, turn, traversal change, or puzzle interaction roughly every 5–10 seconds so the level continually introduced small changes in pace and direction.
I also used environmental framing and leading lines to guide the player naturally through the space without relying heavily on explicit directions. For example, the player reaches a log raft within the first few seconds, then is immediately redirected into a puzzle shortly afterward. This pattern continues throughout the opening area, using turns, obstacles, and interactions to break up straight-line movement while keeping the intended path visually clear.
Blockmesh
Final
Level Narrative - Handler
The player is sent by Bastion’s wealthy elite to investigate abandoned pre-Fall technology and locate a missing child. Throughout the level, the Handler provides short story beats that react to discoveries, reinforce objectives, and gradually raise questions about whether the child is simply a runaway. These moments add context and mystery without interrupting the flow of exploration.
Level Mid — Escalating Mechanics & Pacing
The middle section was designed to gradually introduce new mechanics while increasing the complexity of systems the player had already learned. The player first encounters an enemy in a relatively controlled situation before being asked to manage combat alongside more demanding puzzle interactions.
One example is the advanced fuse challenge, where the player must place cubes on platforms while deciding whether to avoid or engage nearby enemies. Encounters were arranged using the level’s IPM pacing plan so periods of traversal, puzzle solving, and combat build in intensity without overwhelming the player.
Gravity Chambers — Introducing the Core Pre-Fall Technology
The gravity chambers were designed as the level’s major late-game mechanic and the payoff for the player’s investigation into pre-Fall technology. Inside each chamber, the player can alter gravity and use the low-gravity environment to throw cubes across the room and place them on distant platforms.
The sequence was paced using the level’s IPM structure, introducing the mechanic in a controlled space before increasing its complexity across multiple chambers. By placing the mechanic near the end of the level, it acts as both a gameplay escalation and a narrative reveal, showing the player the technology they were originally sent to investigate before transitioning into the mine section of the combined level.
Players toggle the gravity zones through an in-world computer terminal that I modeled using Unreal Engine’s built-in 3D modeling tools and connected to the chamber’s gravity controls.
Blockmesh
Final
Elevator Into Mine - Souls Style
To transition the player into the mine section, I built a Souls-style elevator that carries the player down into the next area of the level. I implemented the elevator functionality and designed the surrounding mine tunnel using environment assets from the Unreal Fab Marketplace.
The goal was to make the transition feel like a deliberate change in space and tone rather than simply moving the player from one room to another, while also creating a clear visual handoff into the next section of the combined level.
