Whale Fall is an Unreal 5 level design project I worked on for a month full-time. It's a blockout where I used typical AAA mechanics like climbing and shooting to create a gameplay sequence supported by a narrative.

The project takes place on a broken oil rig. You, as a player, get to be the first to explore it and find out what happened.

The project is done with the help of ALS (Advanced Locomotion System) created by Jakub W. It contains enemy AI logic, traversal mechanics, shooting, and more. Please be sure to check them out here.

Team: 1 person Tools: Unreal 5, Draw.io Roles: Design, Research, Testing Duration: ~1 Month

Gameplay

Design

Level Flowchart

1. Climbing up the anodes

2. Jumping to the container using the rope

4. Discover that the staff is killed

5. Jump over towards the helipad

6. Discover the portable laboratory

7. Enter engineering, fix the broken pipe

9. Get past the guarded area

3. Entering Accomodations, moving furniture away to progress

8. Climb around administration without getting noticed

10. Enter communications, find a zipline to move across

11. Enter drill control, open the trapdoor

12. Go down the drill, use the rope to jump to the platforms

13. Reach the large metal door, lift it up

14. Find the whale

Research

Since I chose the rig for this project, I knew that it was important for the environment to feel exactly like that - a cramped space full of machinery, cranes, pipes, and mud barrels. While I designed the rig's overall structure myself, I looked at 3D models of rigs I found online, particularly on TurboSquid. There, the rigs are highly detailed, unlike the other resources I used like documents and old YouTube videos that explain how rigs actually work. The final result doesn't follow the design of real oil rigs to a tee but it's relatively close.

I do know about Still Wakes the Deep (basically the best oil rig-related game out there) but unfortunately in this project, the game wasn't of great help as a reference. Its rig structure answered some of my questions, but the environment was too big for my design goals. Still Wakes the Deep is a 3-hour horror game: having long corridors and twisted spaces is something I couldn't afford for gameplay reasons and because of my project's scope.

Development

1. The Structure

I planned to have some narrative in the game, so I started by outlining the general sequence of events. I intended for the gameplay to be mostly outdoors which is why, in this iteration, I mainly focused on the look of the environment. My initial attempts looked more like a city landscape rather than an oil platform but with more elements added, the space started to feel more cramped. For real rigs, free space is a luxury, which is something I wanted to show in my game too.

I designed the rig to be traversable only by two-thirds since making the player walk a full circle isn't exactly realistic.

2. The Details

At this point, I started to fill the insides of the buildings. Besides referencing the actual facilities that can exist on the rig, I paid attention to how each section feels. I realized that the buildings need to be smaller than they were initially planned to be since they have to feel right for the player. The ceiling got lowered and small rooms got even smaller. The game was intended to be linear, which allowed for the rig's base to be also reduced, following the shape of the buildings. Another way to make the rig look more authentic.

3. The Final Result

While playtesting, I finished the drilling section and added decorations to the roofs of buildings, despite them not being traversable in the game. I then added lights that made the rig look nice from afar but also helped the player navigate the space. I also finished scripting the enemies and objects, as well as implemented a gif of a whale's eye for the end part. After playtesting, turned out some sections needed major redesigning that was related to the capabilities of the enemy AI, the tools I worked with and players' engagement with the game (more about which in Playtesting).

Playtesting

First Sketch

Before

First Sketch

Before

This area was greatly shaped by the behavior of the AI and the weapons. While I had the chance to tweak the numbers, I decided to use the preset system - where the enemies are less forgiving and always aim for a headshot. This resulted in frustrating playtests at first: players oftentimes tried to run through the enemies, not knowing of the available choices. My solution to that was to cover the lifeboat with something that presented a much clearer path, which was an overall positive addition. Making the first step became more intuitive while preserving a chance for the rest of the enemies to put up a fight.

The building at the bottom of the picture was also pushed back. This is a quick solution to enemy AI: it has a slow response if a path towards the target isn't obstructed. The new design seemed to help and if the player isn't careful, three more enemies will start searching for them.

The Shooting Area

After

The Engineering contains a simple puzzle - the final door is obstructed by steam that comes out of a broken pipe and it can be removed by turning the valve. Since it's the only reason the building exists, I focused a lot on what it contains and the player's path - mainly finding ways to block the player's view and motivate them to engage with the environment. The result was the player discovering the solution before the problem - which misses the entire point of a puzzle. For that reason, I changed some things around: the valve is moved to the room players tend to visit last and the path to the final door is changed.

The Engineering

After

Conclusion

Given more time, I would've certainly designed the puzzle sections (the trapdoor and the valve) differently. Their current state results from several puzzle iterations, each demanding a unique kind of space to support them - which ended up being quite inefficient. In reality, what I should've done was follow Peter Field's approach to problem-solution ordering and focus on puzzles themselves. In his example, the interaction with "the problem" enables a path to "the solution" - a hard fix that forbids the player entirely from discovering the solution first. This leaves no opportunities for bad ordering, which is pretty important - especially in a linear game.
Whale Fall is also a project where the opportunity cost of my approach became tangible to me. When making a game, one needs to choose what will work better for the experience as a whole, like focusing on story or gameplay. As an example, Rockstar Games makes the art department do the outline of a new space first and then lets the designers continue but not the other way around. They believe this approach works better for the game they are making and I find this issue relevant in my project as well. If I were to choose to work on mechanics as much as I did on the environment instead, they would've formed a cohesive system where they could all relate to each other in a meaningful way. But considering the time constraints set for this project, the aesthetic of an oil rig would've been lost.