Step 01Discovery of the first zone
The cathedral landmark establishes direction while the narrow street guides movement and reinforces the atmosphere.
Emotion(s): Mystery, Confinement
School Project
The Black Death 1347
A historical level design project using research as a design tool to build believable spaces, readable navigation, and atmosphere without turning the level into a lecture.
Level DesignUnreal Engine 5.5Historical ResearchEnvironmental Storytelling
The Black Death 1347 - Gameplay
The Black Death 1347
The Black Death 1347 is a short game connecting my level design skills with the historical knowledge of medieval cities acquired during my university studies in History under Céline Pérol.
Set in a historically credible 14th-century city at the dawn of the Black Death, the project adds a fictional layer in which the epidemic is more virulent. The player is an isolated physician tasked with escorting a wealthy family out of the city.
- Genre
- Historical Walking Simulator
- Type
- School level design project
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5.5
- Iterations
- 3
- Playtests
- 2
- Role
- Level Designer
- Tools
- Blockout, art blockout, historical research
- History Use
- Medieval urban structure, environmental credibility, period-aware terminology, and spatial storytelling.
Level Overview & Pre-Production Highlights
Level objective: create tension and mystery through claustrophobic medieval streets, then contrast that pressure with curiosity, surprise, and relief inside a luxurious house.
The experience follows four phases and concludes with narrative and spatial resolution when the player saves the family and returns through a newly opened shortcut.
Historical knowledge supports the urban logic, atmosphere, landmarks, and invisible guidance.
Moodboard & Historical Direction
The moodboard combines medieval market imagery, dense half-timbered streets, historical urban representations, atmospheric game references, and a wealthy interior.
These references support a credible 14th-century spatial language while preserving readable routes and emotional contrast.
Level Intentions & Emotional Progression
Click the numbered points on the production layout to highlight the corresponding intention below.
Step 02The abandoned market
The central square creates a wow moment. Goods, the statue, sword, mountain slope, blocked areas, and corpses shape the route and deepen the mystery.
Emotion(s): Awe, Curiosity, Unease, First wow effect
Step 03The House
The player discovers three survivors and an interaction that clearly establishes the rescue objective.
Emotion(s): Clarity, Relief, Surprise
Step 04Objectives completed
A previously blocked route opens as a shortcut to the spawn area, reinforcing spatial understanding and avoiding repetition.
Emotion(s): Satisfaction, Spatial Awareness, Accomplishment
Level Design Breakdown
Blockout Intention
This breakdown compares clean blockout screenshots with annotated level design intentions. The annotations highlight route logic, affordances, lighting, framing, and visual guidance.
Red = Leading Lines / Affordance / Highlight
Yellow = Golden Path
Orange = Lighting
The player can observe the cathedral landmark, which clearly indicates the direction to follow, while the narrowness of the street naturally reinforces the intended path.
During their progression, the player discovers a carriage blocking the path. This staging is intended to immediately raise a question: what is on the other side? The darkness of the alley clearly indicates that the player should not go this way, but instead move toward the lit area and the route identified earlier.
At the end of this narrow passage, the player discovers a real wow effect with the opening onto the central square, where an abandoned market is located.
The mountain in the background extends this guiding principle: its slope naturally directs the player's gaze downward, toward the direction intended by the Golden Path.
The goods naturally guide the player toward the intended path. The statue and the sword contribute to the atmosphere and credibility of the location, while primarily serving as a directional landmark indicating the progression to follow.
Once on the main path, the mountains in the background continue to guide the player by indicating the direction to follow. This guidance is reinforced by the appearance of a new landmark, the yellow tower, as well as by the presence of a light source directed toward the path the player must take.
Once inside the house, the player discovers that three characters are still alive. By approaching them, an interaction allows the player to save them, which explicitly clarifies the main objective. The player also notices that the house is particularly luxurious, notably thanks to the presence of two fireplaces and books. These elements of environmental storytelling suggest that they are not ordinary survivors, but a wealthy family, providing social and narrative context to the player's action.
Once the three characters have been saved, the door located at the back of the house, which was initially closed, opens. This opening materializes the player's progression and unlocks access to a new path.
Once outside the house, the door positioned in front of the player is placed in such a way that it naturally turns the player's view to the right, revealing that the path is blocked by a carriage.
The player notices that the path previously blocked by the other carriage at the beginning of the level is now accessible. This allows the player to return to the starting area without taking the original path.
Blockout Evolution & Art Blockout
This section shows how visual references were translated into an art blockout, then how the overall level structure evolved from simple shapes into a more readable and understandable blockout.
First, the elements from the concept art were reproduced in blockout in order to integrate them directly into the level. This approach makes the level's readability clearer.
In a second step, using very simple shapes, the overall structure of the level was defined. Once the flow was validated and considered satisfactory, the models were used to make the blockout more readable and easier to understand.
Playtest Process
During the 2 playtests, players often cut directly across the left side of the market instead of following the intended route.
To correct this behavior, I added obstacles that block this shortcut and channel the player's progression through the designed path while keeping the market composition believable.
What I Learned
Art Blockout and Historical Research
This project showed me that historical expertise can become a direct level design tool
Player routing not fully anticipated before playtests
During playtests, players often cut directly through the market instead of following the intended route. The issue was a missing obstacle,something a tighter pre-playtest check would have caught earlier.
Translating visual references into modular blockout forms
This project taught me how to create and use an art blockout: translating visual references into modular shapes and testing silhouettes, proportions, and atmosphere before final production.
Historical knowledge supported every spatial decision
My historical expertise became a practical level design tool,supporting urban density, street hierarchy, market composition, landmark placement, and environmental storytelling.
Underestimating the time available before the deadline
Due to the project deadline, I did not invest enough time into the work. Many elements had to be simplified to fit within the timeframe. Overestimating the time I had available directly impacted the final level's quality and completeness.