Edge of Hell (2025)
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Hi-Concept: Rip and tear through your enemies as the all-powerful demon from Hell, Abaddon, in this thrilling first-person action game!
Team Type: College Team Project
Team Size: 8 People
Software I Used: Unity, Milanote, Google Drive, Discord, GitHub
My Responsibilities:
Designed, constructed, and populated x3 diverse in-game levels, as well as x4 stylized boss arenas, in a 3D space within the Unity game engine.
Mindfully crafted the game’s pacing within the levels to ensure maximum player enjoyment.
Utilized various lighting techniques to strike a careful balance between immersion and performance cost.
Infused environmental storytelling at every possible turn, as well as being responsible for populating the level with art assets.
Promoted player choice at every turn, allowing the player to play the game in a variety of styles.
Structured & planned the overall flow of the game, including weaving the narrative into the levels, ensuring maximum utilization of game mechanics throughout the game, and creating a deliberate collectible system that encouraged world exploration and silently guided the player as a tutorial would.
Managed the day-to-day managerial responsibilities such as work distribution, hosting and scheduling meetings, organizing and maintaining services such as Milanote and Google Drive, writing meeting notes, managing project timelines, and cultivating cross-disciplinary teamwork.
Designed engaging game mechanics and kept the team’s vision of the games consistent across the board to ensure clarity and quality.
Collaborated with art and programming teams to create a fully equipped 3D-2D hybrid action game over the course of nearly a year, hitting all deadlines with pinpoint accuracy.
Play the Game: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-hEPNc8E_svUXDWTr4CoxaqYnQIgpEUE?usp=sharing
My Roles in Development Explained
My Main Roles:
Project Lead: Responsible for the game’s overall direction, creative vision, work distribution, and timeline management.
Gameplay Design: Responsible for designing the game’s moment-to-moment gameplay as well as core game mechanics.
Level Design: Responsible for designing, building, and populating all of the game’s 3 main levels, boss arenas, and a Gym level where developers could work on pieces of the game in isolation. Also included was pacing design, puzzles, platforming, side objectives, collectibles, diegetic guiding of the player, tutorials, enemy placements, item placements, and more.
My Secondary Roles:
Narrative Design: Responsible for crafting the game’s larger narrative & implementing the game’s narrative beats into the game world through mostly environmental storytelling techniques.
Technical Design: Responsible for designing and crafting certain complex level ingredients.
Environment Artist: Responsible for thoughtfully implementing and arranging nearly all art assets, 3D & 2D, throughout the game world to craft visually interesting scenes and thought-provoking environmental storytelling.
Lighting: Responsible for arranging the game’s lighting to carefully balance performance and visual fidelity on a case-by-case basis to craft visually striking scenes.
Audio Implementation: Responsible for choosing and implementing all of the game’s soundtrack pieces as well as matching SFX to in-game objects.
Game Playtester: Responsible for extensive bug-testing and playtesting of the entire game in a Quality Assurance (QA) capacity to ensure a pleasant player experience.
An “Edge of Hell” Memoir
Edge of Hell’s Level Flow, Narrative Influences, & Overarching Game Design Philosophy:
The Short Version:
The Entire Game’s Goal = To provide the player with the opportunity to fulfill a power fantasy. This centered around conquering the realm of Purgatory through the eyes of a powerful demon named Abaddon. Abaddon uses a mixture of magic-based skills and visceral melee-focused combat via his Mystical Scythe to defeat various monsters and beasts. Fun, fast-paced, forward-facing action with puzzles and platforming mixed in for sections that further engage the player’s critical thinking skills all come together to make for a wonderfully satisfying time!
Level 1 (Infernus) = Linear Volcanic Hellscape Tutorial World
Level 2 (Ergus) = Complex & Dangerous Desert Temple That Tests Your Skills
Level 3 (Tundrus) = A Guantlet of Mastery, Snowy Ascent To The Finale
Boss Arenas = Up Close & Personal Gladitorial Colleseums for 1:1 Brawls
The Gym = Developer Playground for Testing Game Mechanics & Metrics
Click Here for the Long Version
I put a ton of thought into how Edge of Hell was designed. Everything from the moment-to-moment gameplay to the levels to the boss fights were stitched together to create a hopefully very fun and very memorable experience.
To Learn More about the game, feel free to browse through Edge of Hell’s Game Design Document (GDD) linked here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16cOCx5Noazj8acTUU6PaQBujMlBcphmj?usp=sharing
I encourage you to Play the Game for yourself if you’re interested, using this:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-hEPNc8E_svUXDWTr4CoxaqYnQIgpEUE?usp=sharing
The Process
Each level in the game started off as a design on grid paper along with an idea. The sections of the game had to have a purpose, and they had to fulfill a certain goal, such as being a tutorial, an area of freedom for exploration, or a mission designed to test the player's mastery of their skills. I would iterate on the layout over and over until I thought it was worthy to move on to the blockout / greybox stage. I would then hop into Unity and begin building the rough geometry, as well as test how the flow and pacing felt. If level ingredients needed to be built to enhance the player experience, I built them. If playtesting revealed that there were too many enemies or not enough items, I adjusted it. If the level felt confusing to navigate, I would iterate on the paths available to the player. Once I was satisfied with the feel of the level, I would begin placing final ingredients, distributing collectibles, implementing art assets, and conducting final playtests. This iterative process kept each of my levels well-paced and ensured the player would have fun exploring them.
Grid Paper Drafts
Each of the game’s levels began as detailed sketches on grid paper. I would always start with a main target goal in mind, such as the level being a tutorial world, the level needing to give the player a feeling or emotion, or the level needing to act as a mainly narrative beat vs a combat section. During this time, crafting the main objective locations, laying out the rough flow, and the placements of level ingredients were front and center. I also kept in mind narrative beats and gameplay mechanics when designing.
Iterate, Iterate, Iterate
One thing that I initially struggled with during development was over-committing to translating my paper designs to my blockouts in a 1:1 fashion. I learned that the key to good level design, and by extension all game design, is to iterate and improve upon your ideas until they feel right. Changes can take place all throughout the process. Even as early as game mechanics being tested in the independent “Gym” level I created, where everyone on the team could experiment with level ingredients, enemy encounters, etc. Initial drafts are great for locking in a certain vibe or general layout of the level, and blockouts are great for fine-tuning how the level plays in the actual game. However, it takes time to work through those processes through many essential stages of iteration that stack on top of each other like Legos. The final product rarely looks exactly 1:1 to the initial idea, and I learned that this is actually a very good thing because it means the idea was improved and iterated on for the benefit of all. The process of design is an iterative and collaborative experience that I wholeheartedly enjoy.
Blockouts in Unity
After many iterations of the paper design, I then moved on to the actual game engine. I built each level’s foundational layers using simple, easy-to-move geometry and placeholders. It’s essential to keep the level modular at this stage because playtests reveal areas that could use adjustments and refinement. The blockout phase combined with playtests allowed me to calibrate the game’s levels to craft a better game flow. It’s also the best time to hone in on pacing, level ingredients, and gather overall feedback.
The Final Product
After each level was calibrated after playtesters’ feedback, it was time to assemble the final product. I locked in my decisions on final enemy placements, item placements, objective paths, checkpoints, and more. I added textures and art assets to the scenes I built to craft environments that were visually interesting. I learned how to balance real-time and baked lighting. I crafted small environmental storytelling bits that told silent stories, which was one of my favorite parts. I laid out paths consisting of collectibles to help guide the player in the right direction subtly. All this and more. Designing and building Edge of Hell’s levels was a long, rewarding experience that taught me an unfathomable amount about game design. Level design is my passion, and seeing people play through the worlds I built fills me with immeasurable amounts of joy and satisfaction. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions regarding my level design or game design processes. I love to talk about this kind of stuff with anyone who will listen, haha. My contact info can be found at the bottom of the page!
The Design
When Edge of Hell was conceptualized, I pitched a 2D-3D hybrid game similar to the origninal Doom from the 90's. The gameplay was designed to be similar to Doom's action-packed push-forward approach, but with a melee-focused twist. The main character's moveset was tailored to fit this agenda and the layout of the game followed suit. Abaddon is equipped with a quick melee slash to get up close and personal with his foes, a ranged fire attack to interact with hard-to-reach enemies as well as environmental objects, and lastly, a mysitcal block ability to add defensive depth to the combat system. Each enemy was designed as a counterpart to Abaddon's base moveset. The sword-bearing Brutes can go toe-to-toe with the quick melee attack, the cannon-wielding Devastators shoot plasma bullets that can be parried by the player's block action, and the Hellbats can be shot down with a well-aimed fireball attack. The fireball can even shatter locked doors and be used to interact with movable platforms, adding an additional way to interact with the game world. The game is also designed in such a way where this core moveset, as well as the unlockable additional abilities, are used in all the game's puzzles. Every design choice within Edge of Hell was made with purposeful and deliberate care.
Player-Enemy Dynamics Explored
Each of the game’s enemies can be interacted with in a variety of ways. You can use your melee slash to deal massive damage, your Hellfire ranged projectile to hit airborne foes, and your block to parry incoming projectiles. Abaddon’s moveset, and the game by extension, was designed to give the player a full toolkit that enabled them to fight however they wanted to. Player choice is important to me as a designer.
Abilities With More Than One Use-Case
I wanted Abaddon’s abilities to be like swiss army knives. Able to be used in not only combat, but throughout the entire game. I designed it so Abaddon’s Hellfire can open gateways, interact with platforms, and more to give the player a more engaging experience. I also made it so the player could redirect an enemy’s projectile via a well-timed parry to either shoot the enemy back with their own attack or even use it to solve puzzles!
The Environment
As I developed and designed Edge of Hell, I quickly realized the importance of several aspects that I had previously never considered. Balancing the lighting of the scenes became a vital part of my job, with the battle of performance vs beauty weighing heavily over me in each level. Choosing to implement baked vs real-time lighting depending on the scenario was a decision whose impact would be felt on the player's game performance. I carefully and deliberately lit each scene in such a way where they could look stunning and simultaneously grant the player as much FPS performance as possible. Environmental storytelling quickly became one of my favorite tasks throughout development. Designing mini-stories through careful set dressing and placement of environment art always delighted me. Games like Bioshock and Elden Ring tell entire narratives silently through environmental storytelling, and I made sure Edge of Hell was no different.
Lighting The World
Learning how and when to use baked lighting truly saved the performance of Edge of Hell. Carelessly placing all real-time lighting without thought can tank a game’s performance tremendously. I had to learn this lesson the hard way during development, but I’m a much better game developer, level designer, and lighting artist for it. One example of deliberate lighting would be how I carefully arranged colored lights, like vibrant oranges and reds, to simulate active lava in Level 1, which really enhanced the ambiance and mood of the area. There were also times like in Level 2 where the main door is cast in a brilliant real-time golden light to emphasize its importance. I lit every scene with purpose.
Environmental Storytelling
One of my favorite ways to convey narrative side plots through games is via silent environmental storytelling. Games like Elden Ring and Bioshock are my inspirations for how I construct my mini-scenes. The shown example tells the story of a humanoid creature who was sacrificed in this hellish landscape. Their body lay headless nearby a sacrificial star, etched into the bricks of Infernus. As the area glows and hums with mystery, the player wonders whether the humanoid was crawling away from the sacrifice when they were beheaded, or if the perpetrators chose to drop the head into the lava as some part of the ritual. I love leaving that up to the player to interpret exactly how a scene might have gone down.
From Linear, Guided Pathways …
Level One started off as a very linear guided world to teach the player how the game worked. Level 2, as shown above, took this a step further with its trust in the player by branching out into a myriad of interconnected hallways that led to puzzle rooms. These puzzle rooms, upon completion, would reward the player with the three keys necessary to unlock the main doorway. I actually made sure that the three glowing symbols atop the doorframe were linked to the three physical keys found around the map. If the player collected the key that matched the symbol on the top of the triangle, the glow would disappear. Obtain all the keys, which are saved even upon death, and all three glows disappear, opening the door. This complexity really engages the player’s mind and was delightful to design.
… To Vast, Expansive Open-Worlds
When it came time to design the final level of the game, Level 3, I decided that its design could be a lot more open-world due to my faith in the player by this part of the game. No player wants to be handheld in perpetuity, and I made sure to allow for exploration and freedom of choice for where to go. Level 3 was also a vertically designed level, as opposed to a traditional horizontally designed level. This was to symbolize the ascent up towards the final boss of the game, Azrael the Fallen Angel. I made sure to add an elevator at the end where they could ascend the giant waterfall that has been visible and persistent throughout all three layers of the level. Ascending up the waterfall’s cascading beauty gives the player a moment of rest before the pacing gets dialled to 11 in the final boss fight.
The Level Ingredients
Throughout the development of the game, I recognized the need for various level ingredients to truly elevate the gameplay. Each ingredient played a crucial role within the game, and each ingredient served a distinct purpose. Some were designed to teach the player a certain way they could interact with the game world, some were designed as ways to maneuver the levels, and some were key components of the game's mechanical DNA. All of them, however, were integral to providing the best experience possible to the player during their time in Edge of Hell. I made sure to design these ingredients in such a way that they could be repurposed and reused throughout various parts of the game. For example, the elevators’ code remains the same throughout each level, even though the runic designs on each one are different. Red runes are found on Level 1 elevators and moving platforms, yellow on Level 2, etc.
Elevators & Moving Platforms For Complexity
These types of level ingredients were designed as ways to add complexity to the way the player maneuvers throughout the game world. Rather than boring flat landscapes and endless hallways, I created pieces that enabled verticality and timing-based horizontal movement. I used the elevators to get the player up, down, and around different places and obstacles. Shown above is a mini-puzzle I placed in the environment that is completely optional. If the player successfully uses the elevators to avoid the toxic spikes, they are rewarded with many collectible souls! I used the constantly moving platforms to make the player act deliberately when they want to cross over dangerous terrain, such as lava or quicksand pits. Both the elevators and moving platforms are decorated with runes to signify that they can be interacted with by the player. I like having multiple ways for the player to engage and interact with the world around them. Another way I did that was by making it so the various gates found throughout the game had to be shot open by the player.
Puzzles For Critical Thinking
The main way I managed the pacing of Edge of Hell was via puzzle sections. Although the game is first and foremost an action game with combat sections galore, a game full of only one type of experience quickly grows boring. Introducing my puzzles to the rescue. In Level 1, I kept it simple with basic platforming sections where the player had to figure out a way to cross through dangerous terrain. In Level 2, I designed and built 3 distinct puzzle rooms that were the main event of the level. The Thread Room, shown above, had the player use various angles to shoot various targets with their fireballs in order to proceed. I loved this style of puzzle so much in fact that it was featured in Level 3 as well. The Parry Room had the player redirect incoming enemy projectiles in order to shatter glass targets to proceed. The Parkour Room had the player make various difficult jumps and calculate the way to go in order to proceed. All of my puzzles tested the player’s skills and served as breathers from the combat sections in order to maintain good game pacing.
Video Walkthroughs
Coming Soon:
Level 1 - Infernus
Level 2 - Ergus
Level 3 - Tundrus
All Cerberus Miniboss Arenas
Azrael Final Boss Fight
Puzzle Showcase
Combat Showcase
Full Game Playthrough
