ANUBIS CORPS
LABS
Overview
Narrative / Story: Steel has tracked a rogue corporation’s secret energy project to a heavily fortified underground laboratory. The mission: infiltrate, dismantle, and escape.
But the job doesn’t end there. Once the core goes critical, alarms will blare and the lab will erupt into chaos. Survive the gauntlet of panicked guards, collapsing structures, and failing systems as you claw your way back to the surface.
Project Specs
Solo Project
Developed over the course of 4 Weeks on Lunch breaks ~1 Hour a day
Created as a map mod for severed Steel using Ue5 and the Voxel Plugin
The project had no access to a hierarchy during development
Design Goals
1. Technical Proficiency & Editor Mastery
Goal: Achieve competency and familiarity with the Severed Steel Voxel Editor.
Execution: The project was aimed primarily at learning and utilizing the editor's full toolset, specifically focusing on creating complex levels and multi-level campaigns, as well as scripting intricate enemy encounters and dynamic objectives.
2. Gameplay Experience & Design Alignment
Goal: Create a mod that highlights and amplifies the core gameplay pillars of Severed Steel.
Execution: The level design prioritized the fast-paced spectacle of destruction and kinetic movement, ensuring every encounter and environment provided maximum opportunity for player expression and chaotic combat.
3. Mod Integration & Quality of Life
Goal: Design the mod content to feel professionally integrated and consistent with the base game experience.
Execution: Specific attention was paid to balancing the pacing and visual style so that the map could be integrated seamlessly with the base game campaign roster, providing an authentic and high-quality expansion experience for players.
Moodboards and References
I collated a series of reference images to create a level that could easily be integrated along with existing levels of the games campaign in order to not break the immersion of the player and ensure that effective framing, colour language and scale metrics are adhered to so that they have a seamless and intuitive experience playing the mod.
Super Hot and existing severed steel maps are featured in the moodboards below where I found that a clear colour language and leading lines in the form of neon strips were used heavily to guide the player and improve the overall depth perception of the level.
Node Based Designs
When concepting the level I created several node base designs to help me visualize the gameplay flow of the level. For the level in question I determined that a full linear level suited the desired game flow better as I intended to fully control the pacing of the mod taking the player on a journey of destruction through the facility.
Linear
A linear flow design with room to room style objectives focusing mostly around wave based combat zones with high intensity pacing with a destruction Objective before the final zone to break up the routine and add tension as the pacing is altered before resuming in the final area
Linear - Multi Stage
The linear multi stage flow design consists of separating each combat zone with a destruction / assassinate style objective with the final open zone combining all elements at once allowing the player to tackle 3 simultaneous objectives at once
Semi Linear
For the semi linear flow design I experimented with the idea of offering more layer choice to complete one of two objectives before proceeding to the combat zone / destruction flow however I found that this method did not lend well to the gameplay in Severed Steel which thrives on fast paced action packed room to room combat
Top Down Plans
As the Severed Steel mod editor doesn't have a hierarchy view or multiple viewports / viewmodes. I only created a rough top down plan for each of the core combat area focusing an a agile workflow I used these plans as references when designing each of the areas but was sure to not remain 100% faithful to the original plans allowing myself breathing room to adapt the mods layout to be more fluid and fast paced.
