Solo Project
Game engine: Unreal Engine 4
Prison Labor Camp is my first Unreal project created back in 2020. It features the theme of a dictator-run prison camp in a post apocalyptic world. The player plays as a police officer who could navigate around the environment that I had put together with free art assets from Unreal Marketplace.
The goal of the project is to create an immersive game space, matching the abovementioned theme with the use of object texturing/geometry, set dressing, lighting, music, sounds and cinematics.
My roles: Level/Cinematics Designer, Set Dresser
To get a sense of the space I want to work and be familiar with the editor, I started by grey-boxing the lower floor out, setting up lighting, and placing basic geometry on locations where the final objects would be at. This was followed by texturing the floors, walls and roofs, ensuring that appropriate scaling of textures and objects had been done.
Next, by replacing geometric objects with actual set dressing and placing NPCs to bring life to the map, I had grasped the intended mood and aesthetic of the map. Additional work to set the tone was also done with adjustments to lighting, as well as post processing, where volumetric fog and color correction were added to the map. All these knowledge were later applied to the larger top floor, where the bulk of the project's elements would be showcased.
The use of cutscenes allow me to bring out certain parts of the map's story, such as the joy and suffering of the prisoners, as well as the charisma and ego of the dictator who runs the place.
Key Takeaways
Balancing a good amount of environment objects with appropriate lighting is important in keeping virtual environments believable and immersive. When coupled with ambient/ background activity, cutscenes, music and sound, a game space can be turned into an immersive environment with its own unique story.
