Level Design Talkthrough
Project Kenon
Project Kenon is a movement-centric first-person space adventure where players must master the grappling-hook mechanic to traverse dramatic, debris-filled environments and retrieve a vital item to escape.
The game blends movement mastery, exploration, and survival, all set within an epic space scrapyard.
4 weeks
7 members
Unreal Engine
Perforce
Miro
Jira, Google Docs
Futuregames GP4
November 2025, 30-minute polished demo
Contribution
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Level Design: Designed and built the entire playable level structure, from early blockout to final set dressing.
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Procedural Content Generation (PCG): Implemented PCG volumes and spline systems to generate asteroid fields and carve traversal paths.
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Guidance Systems: Developed in-world navigation using light, color, and landmarks—minimizing dependence on UI.
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Mechanic Influence: Contributed feedback and iteration on the grapple mechanic, player movement feel, and pickup behavior.
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Solo Production: Managed a large-scale environment independently, ensuring consistent visual language and player experience.
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Cross-Disciplinary Communication: Collaborated with tech and design departments to align level flow, mechanics, and narrative tone
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Environmental Storytelling: Created narrative flow through architecture, lighting, environmental composition and storytelling elements such as the Log pick-ups.
Section 01
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Learning Section
- Asteroid Filed
Section 02
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Skill Check
- Gravity Swing Section
Section 03
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Story Driven Section
- Crashed Spaceship & Scrapyard
Spatial Choreography
The core of the experience lies in the movement system.
I think of my approach as spatial choreography—a design philosophy that combines gameplay flow and emotional atmosphere.
I worked with the contrast between “corridors and cathedrals”:
Corridors and Cathedrals
This rhythm between confined and monumental spaces creates both gameplay variety and emotional resonance.
Technical Execution
As the level designer and set dresser, I worked extensively with Procedural Content Generation (PCG) to fill vast areas efficiently while maintaining handcrafted quality.
I collaborated closely with technical designers, gameplay designers, and programmers, using and refining their tools—for example, the hazard spawner and movement systems.
Procedural Content Generator
My feedback on the grapple mechanic, pickup interaction, and overall movement feel had a major influence on the final player experience.
Guidance & Orientation
To help players orientate without relying on UI, I designed an in-world guidance system using light, color, and environmental cues. By learning to read the world itself, players experience moments of satisfaction and mastery as they find their own path and navigate successfully.
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Blinking blue lights show the path forward, turning red once passed, clearly indicating direction.
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Landmarks and lighting contrasts help players reorient after spinning collisions.
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Pickups are strategically placed along the main path, visible through a helmet UI indicator, encouraging exploration but keeping navigation intuitive.
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A trail of debris and broken ship parts reinforces directionality without breaking immersion.
Guidance
Without explicit narrative, the design invites players to imagine what these places once were—creating curiosity through space and structure.
Take aways
A Blank Canvas
The biggest lesson from Project Kenon was learning to design in parallel with evolving mechanics—to stay adaptable, creative, and collaborative under uncertainty.
Working this way allowed me to have a significant impact on the overall gameplay and the final player experience.
Manageable Scope
Working solo on a large-scale environment taught me to balance vision and feasibility, while coordinating with others to ensure that every part of the game—mechanics, art, and level flow—supported the intended player experience.
For me, gameplay always comes first, so I focused my time on tasks that directly affected the player experience and movement flow.
Player Agency
My design philosophy was to guide players naturally—using environmental elements already present in the level to lead exploration and reward curiosity.
Embody the Master
Because many of the core mechanics were still in development, I created a practice I call “Embody the Master.”
In this method, I imagine myself as one of the great painters—using broad, expressive strokes to “paint” the structure of the level before all systems are in place. This helped me shape the flow, rhythm, and emotional impact early on.