The following work is from the video game Escape from Ever After, a startup indie project developed in Unreal Engine. I served as the game's Creative Director, Level Designer, Gameplay Designer, Writer, Composer, and more.
Escape from Ever After is a recipient
of an Epic MegaGrant
Reviewed Overwhelmingly Positive!
Level Design
As Escape from Ever After's sole level designer, I did the following:
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Built expansive, colorful levels in Unreal Engine, beginning from blockouts and iterating every step of the way.
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Constructed cutscenes, memorable events, and puzzles using Blueprints and visual scripting.
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Polished and optimized environments for efficiency.
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Responded to player feedback by reworking and tweaking level designs to ensure environments were satisfying, clear, and rewarding to explore.
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Polished collision and navigation for a smooth player experience.
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Collaborated with developers and artists across disciplines to ensure each level effectively synthesized with the game's mechanics and art.
My Process
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Designing with Intention
Every element in a level should be the result of a deliberate choice, not an assumption—and I aim to be able to articulate and defend the reasoning behind every decision. This mindset comes from my background as a musician, where performing and composing required constant, real-time awareness of phrasing, articulation, and emotional impact. I approach level design with the same commitment to intentionality.
Level Sample: The Enchanted Woods
The premise: the player must explore the mysterious Enchanted Woods to find a hidden power.
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Objectives
Develop Wolfgang's lute ability
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Wolfgang, a musical"bard-esque" partner, can play songs on his lute to affect the environment. He starts off with the ability to grow certain plants, but The Enchanted Woods needs to showcase other ways his lute can be used.
Test the player's knowledge of how to combine partner abilities
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Flynt can throw his buckler like a boomerang. Tinder can breathe fire. Wolfgang can affect the world with songs on his lute. The Enchanted Woods asks the players to combine these abilities together.
Survive challenging, more aggressive enemies
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The difficulty ramps up here. Enemies move faster, the environment creates trickier scenarios to instigate combat, and healing options are more limited.
Escort the Three Blind Mice through the woods
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Learn more about their dynamic and how they fit into the story.
Part 1: Sandbox
The player is let loose in a large, open area. The way forward is blocked by a magical barrier. To progress, the player must light four torches scattered throughout the map, each presenting a unique challenge that tests them on their abilities.
Why? At this point, the player has been steadily acquiring new abilities. Before allowing further progression, I designed this level to ensure they fully grasp how these abilities interact. The more open space, especially since this is following a miniboss encounter, gives players room to breathe, explore, and approach challenges at their own pace.
This open area introduces a new enemy type in a low-pressure environment, allowing the player to study its behavior patterns and safely figure out how to gain the upper hand in a "first strike."
Part 2: Maze
Next is a maze-like series of maps with no immediately discernible way through. The player can hear mysterious songs echoing through each of the tunnels. But going through leads them right back to this map.
Why? With the player now more comfortable using their abilities, I designed this section to explore Wolfgang's lute ability in a new and more atmospheric context—I wanted the player to feel utterly lost, with the lute being their only way through the mysterious woods. The wisps, which the player generated by lighting torches in the previous level, continue to play a role in the level's puzzles, making everything feel interconnected and purposeful.
By listening for the new song they’ve just learned, the player can find the correct tunnel to progress through the woods. This leads into a series of winding, maze-like areas filled with puzzles and tricky enemies, all while the mysterious melody guides them forward.
Why? I wanted Wolfgang’s lute to feel like more than just a puzzle-solving device—it needed to function like a real instrument, one the player listens to and learns from. By replaying the wisp’s melody, the player can stay oriented and continue recognizing the correct paths through the woods.
Part 3: Hidden Grove
The player has finally reached their destination: a flooded grove hidden deep within the Enchanted Woods. This peaceful area has no enemies. It begins with a cutscene featuring the Three Blind Mice, whom the player has been escorting, and leads into a short final stretch where the player discovers their reward.
Why? This is the release after the tension built from the previous maps. The Hidden Grove is peaceful, and because of the charming narrative beats and the final reward, feels like a destination worth the effort.
In the depths of the Hidden Grove, there is a reward for Wolfgang in the form of a new song, giving the player the ability to summon a gust of wind.
Level Sample: The Dungeon
This is Escape from Ever After's first level, and serves as the game's tutorial.
The premise: an evil corporation has taken over the castle of Tinder the Dragon, and has locked her up in her own dungeon. Flynt and Tinder, formerly nemeses, must team up to escape.
Objectives
Learn basic traversal mechanics
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Players need to understand how to use their throwable buckler to trigger switches, as well as how to use their dragon partner's fire-breathing ability to impact the environment
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Introduce building blocks for key puzzle mechanics that will be used throughout the game
Learn basic combat mechanics
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Introduce turn-based combat gradually before letting enemies loose in the map
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Understand how to use the environment effectively to earn a "first strike" on enemy encounters
Encourage exploration through secrets
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Show out of reach items and rewards to encourage players to experiment
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Hide secret passages to set a precedent that clever exploration leads to rewards
Develop the relationship between the two main characters, Flynt and Tinder
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Establish who these two characters are, their history, and their dynamic
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Leave The Dungeon with a sense of their main goals and purpose for the game's story
Sketch
I started with the most basic possible sketch in my notebook (only for me), outlining what the player needs to learn, and how they need to get from one end of the map to the other.
