Sglaz (2023)
Description
A stealth game about a blind boy trying to escape from the evil witch's mansion by placing magical runes and using them as his new eyes.
Genre: 3d stealth adventure
Development time: 9 months
Platform: PC
Engine: Unreal Engine 5
Team size: 4
I was responsible for
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level art,
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scene assembling,
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materials,
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3d models editing,
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assets integration,
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lighting
my contributions
level art
For this project I came up with and implemented the visual design of the levels. The events of the game take place in an old Victorian witch's mansion, which has a lot of corridors and rooms.
I decided to use the "Alchemist's house" asset as the basis, namely I took the walls, wooden props, carpets, curtains and small props. This asset was more suitable for a medieval-fantasy setting, so I worked on materials and normals in Photoshop. So I replaced the stone walls with wallpaper with floral and other Victorian-style patterns. The stone masonry turned into decorative wood boiserie panels.
Screenshot from the game: a room interior
Screenshot from the game: a room interior
lighting
For the different locations, I wanted to create a unique mood with the lighting.
The first location that the main character enters is the lobby. This is a safe location with no enemies, where the player only learns how to interact with magical runes. That's why the lobby is quite bright, and for the sense of safety I used daylight sunlight streaming in through the windows and creating a light pattern on the walls.
The Lobby
The further we go, the darker the atmosphere becomes. The main sources of light at the back of rooms and corridors are candelabras, candles, and pendant chandeliers. To create a mysterious and ominous atmosphere, I left the semi-darkness; the corridors are irregularly lit so that the player wonders, "What's out there in the dark?"
Corridors
The lighting here tells the player the way: for example, the doors to the next rooms are illuminated by a brighter and warmer "safe" light, so that the player knows where to go. In some corridors, the lighting can tell the player the location of a witch, who casts her shadow as she approaches the light source. This gives the player a few seconds to hide, get back in the room, or climb into the chest.
Screenshots from the game: a room interior and lighting