About the Project
The Tyrant's Castle is an immersive level design project created for QUT's IGB321 course: Immersive Game Level Design. The project challenged the team to create a complete, atmospheric castle environment using modular level tiles and deliberate design principles.
My work centred on lead design and lead art - I shaped the visual identity of the castle, developed parts of the tile set, and was responsible for lighting the scenes to create a moody, oppressive atmosphere appropriate for the vengeance narrative.
You play as The Revenant - a soldier captured by The Tyrant King, whose forces destroyed your homeland. With the help of an ally guard who sets you free, you make your way up the castle to claim your vengeance.
My Process
Pre-Production & Moodboard
As Lead Designer and Lead Artist, I was responsible for establishing the visual and design direction of the project. I created a moodboard to define the aesthetic reference - covering camera angle and perspective, architectural style, colour palette, and texture treatment. This moodboard served as a shared reference for the whole team and informed the bulk of the level assets.
Concept Art
I produced character concept art for each of the key figures in the castle narrative: The Revenant (the player character), The Tyrant King, The Executioner, and the Crestfallen Guard. Due to the time constraints of a university project, enemy characters in the build were represented using robot stand-ins - but the concept art established the intended visual identity for each role.
Level Design
The castle was built from a modular tile system, with each team member responsible for designing and building one third of the tile set - approximately four tiles each. I had full ownership of Level 2: The Castle Grounds, from initial layout diagrams through to the finished build.
I produced a level design document and development schedule to keep the team aligned across the project. I also handled programming for level-specific mechanics in my level - most notably the main gate, which only opens after the player activates three levers distributed across the space, encouraging exploration before progression.
Lighting
Real-time dynamic lighting was not viable at the scale of the castle environment, so I researched and implemented a lightmap baking approach for static geometry, combined with light probes for moving objects - the player character and enemies. This required iteration and testing to get right, but the result was an atmospheric, oppressive lighting scheme that I'm particularly proud of. The lighting was central to establishing the tone the project needed.
Additional Programming
Beyond level-specific mechanics, I built the dialogue and prompt system used throughout the game to deliver narrative beats and guide the player, as well as the health and mana systems that underpin the player character's abilities and combat interactions.