The Excavation

For narrative context, in the introduction: “The Awakening,” Noah, an Ancile agent, accompanied by Elsa, his mentor, and Key, his AI, is searching for missing agent Mei. They discover a portal that they manage to open in order to reach another world. They are attacked by Mei. Noah returns to our reality, while Elsa remains trapped in the other world. We then follow Noah, eight months later, as he searches for the only clue that might help him find Elsa: an underwater station that is no longer responding and which, ultimately, is linked to the opening of the portal and Mei’s disappearance.

Location : An Ocean-I station located at Point Nemo

From : The Awakening: Elsa and Noah are trying to find Mei by figuring out a way to cross a portal that leads to another world

To : The Temple: Noah and Key find a way out of the maze. They enter R’lyeh and head toward Camp Mu, where Ocean-I was conducting experiments.

Difficulty : This is the game’s tutorial level, where players can learn everything they need to solve the case. The focus is on learning. The “critical” solution is fairly obvious, while the “eureka” solution requires players to do more investigating. One is unsafe and the other isn’t, but the case itself remains fairly easy.

Characters : The player interacts only with the AI; otherwise, they will encounter characters who are not present, or dead. There is Andrew Marsh, who sets the quest’s objective; Arif and Anastasia, who guide the player through the two paths that can resolve the investigation; and Terell, who demonstrates the danger of the critical solution.

Player capabilities : The player knows how to use clue analysis, frequency detection, and the sonar that utilizes these features, as well as the game’s basic controls. They will be introduced to aquatic 3C, to sonar as a means of navigating a dark environment, and to Lichen, which allows them to gain energy for analysis; subsequently, they will learn about corruption, but it doesn’t stop there—they will also understand that there are two resolutions for each investigation and, above all, the mental palace, a central element of the investigation.

Ambiance / Flavor : The atmosphere is meant to be oppressive, damp, and oozing. The horror element is emphasized.

Time to finish : approximately 2 hours

My intentions were as follow :

• Create a quest that introduces most of the game's mechanics while featuring a compelling narrative.
• Create an investigation driven by exploration that avoids situations requiring excessive brainload.
• Create a layout giving the player the opportunity to choose how to resolve the investigation with all elements in hand.
• Center the investigation around a strange and violent context thereby fostering a heavy, claustrophobic, and horrifying atmosphere.

• Owner of the game's second level (out of seven). Helping on the first one.
• Owner of mostly the entire onboarding section of the game
• Focused on the investigation gameplay pillar, handling both Level & Quest Design
• Implementing the full quest flow using blueprints in Unreal Engine 5
• Coordinated requests, follow-ups, and integration of all level components, including gameplay elements, specific props, VFX, sound, etc...
• Debugging until Gold.

Work Highlights

First of all, Eliott Hipeau, my lead, has done some work on rationalising quests and how to create them for Cthulhu.

In general terms, the player must encounter an “obstacle” that gives them a goal. This obstacle is underpinned by a “mystery,” which can be resolved through a “conclusive action.”Several “problems” prevent access to the elements needed to carry out one of the conclusive actions.

The player has access to a whole host of clues that help them understand how to tackle the problems, as well as the conclusive actions needed to solve the mystery and remove the obstacle.

The entire level design is based on these guidelines.

The mystery

The problems

Objective and Obstacle

Conclusive Actions

Clues

Staging

​Specifically, in Cthulhu, there are two possible ways to complete quests; these are called the “Critical Path” and the “Eureka Path.”The Critical Path is often the easiest to find, but completing it increases the corruption level.The Eureka Path is harder to find, but, conversely, it cures corruption. 

In this quest:

The goal of the Critical Path is to reassemble the artefact, place it on its pedestal, and create a trail of extra-dimensional sap that shows the way out of the maze.

The goal of the Eureka Path is to realize that the Deep One has found his way out of the maze on his own, and that you must follow its tracks using a sample of its mucus.

The mystery is: how did the Ocean-I team navigate the maze?

Because the obstacle is that the maze is non-Euclidean, meaning you can get lost in it forever.

As for the problems:

For the critical path, the player must find the artefact, but to do so, they must open the decontamination chamber using a specific magnetic card

For the eureka path, the player must find a sample of hybrid mucus; to do so, they must first open the transfer module, which is completely submerged and therefore inaccessible. The player must therefore unclog and activate the drainage system.

We’ve reached the final phase.

The maze has been uncovered, and the station is now fully accessible.

From here on, it was important for us to:

• Ensure that the player uses the mechanics introduced appropriately
• Make sure the player clearly understands that there are two paths
• Ensure that the use of the totem seems easy to understand
• But make sure the player understands that it’s a bad idea to use it
• To explore the second way out of the maze

All clues point to three areas:

The artifact and how it works

The danger posed by the artifact

The thing that followed Anastasia into the station, then disappeared back into the maze, leaving traces behind

The level was designed to guide and control exploration along these different paths. These paths were also supported by the functions of the rooms, which made logical sense to include in an underwater station.

Specifically, the artifact components in a laboratory represented the crew’s madness and the totem’s menacing presence in a medical room containing a corpse; the search for items to be sent to the surface in a so-called transfer room; and surveillance equipment and other logs in a control room.

Initially, the player can access the log and monitoring tools, which provide initial clues about the Eureka path. The player needed to be aware of clues that are not directly linked to the pedestal found in the maze.

These clues indicate that the Deep One followed Arif and Anastasia. That it followed Anastasia into the station and that a serious incident occurred in the transfer module. The second important piece of information is that the Deep One returned to where it came from.

Next, we need to make people understand how dangerous such an artifact can be, so they know how to handle it once they find it. This involves describing various mental health issues of varying severity, with the story of Terell Curtis serving as the most serious and glaring example.

Third, the two hypotheses were confirmed by an audio log found by following a trail of blood.

This audio log depicts Anastasia in distress. We learn that the totem has been broken, that one piece is in the maze near Arif, and the others are in the laboratory. We also learn that the Deep One was in the station, chasing Anastasia.

Finally, provide all the necessary elements in the lab to complete the critical path with the artifact, while also letting the player know there’s something else to do.

That is, they can access the totem pieces and realize they must place them, reconstructed, on their pedestal within the maze.

But they also learn that there is a way to track the Deep One using an invisible mucus that reacts to sonar frequencies. However, to get their hands on a sample, they must access the transfer module.

So no matter what happens, the player is very likely to end up in the lab and make a choice:

• Follow the critical path, which seems like the most obvious choice
• Dig a little deeper to understand the other way to navigate the maze: the “eureka” path
  
  

The door that was blocked becomes a shortcut back into the maze

If the player chooses the Eureka path, accessing the transfer module becomes their objective and requires a bit more exploration.

It was therefore important to provide some guidance regarding the order in which clues were discovered.

Technical Aspect

Since our team was relatively small, the level designers were responsible for ensuring that everything related to the quest was integrated and functioned properly. Broadly speaking, I had to handle:

• The entire quest flow
• The tutorials
  • Learning the 3Cs of underwater gameplay
  • Learning the boost mechanic
  • Learning the energy system
  • Learning the sonar
  • Learning the corruption mechanic
  • Learning the concept of dual solutions, known as “Eureka”
• Game systems, specifically:
  • The oxygen tank system
  • The drainage system
  • The decontamination chamber
• The save system
• Level streaming
• Integrating clues
• Integrating dialogues and the many conditions that come with it
• Integrating cutscenes
• Integrating VFX into the systems
• Integrating Steam achievements
• And lots of failsafes, haha