Eques Arcanum

First Person horror puzzle game

Role: Technical Lead | Level / Technical Designer

5-member team | Sep2024 – Oct 2024 | Unreal Engine 5

Introduction

Eques Arcanum is a horror puzzle game developed in Unreal Engine 5. Players must explore a series of uniquely themed maze-like levels to locate four mystical crystal orbs and use them to seal away a demonic entity.

Overview

Situation

The main design goal was to create a highly immersive horror escape experience through audio design, environmental atmosphere, and a dynamic chase system. As players collect more crystal spheres, the demon’s movement speed increases, gradually escalating tension and creating a layered sense of psychological pressure and escape urgency.

Action

On the level design side, I designed part of the levels and built the gameplay environment. In the design process, I connected the core gameplay directly to the level flow, so players would remain under pressure while exploring the maze, collecting crystal spheres, and avoiding the demon’s pursuit. At the same time, I used variation in environment style to keep the spatial experience visually distinct and engaging.

For environmental presentation, I helped define the visual direction of the space with a focus on immersive horror atmosphere, allowing the level to support not only movement and gameplay function, but also emotional tension and player immersion through environmental storytelling and visual tone.

On the mechanics side, I used Blueprints to implement part of the game’s interactive environmental systems, increasing both dynamic feedback and player interaction, and I completed around 50% of the gameplay mechanic Blueprint development. This helped the level function not as a static backdrop, but as an interactive space closely tied to the core gameplay loop.
On the polish and iteration side, I adjusted lighting, sound design, and chase pacing based on user research and feedback in order to make the horror experience more consistent and effective. According to the results shown in the screenshots, player satisfaction with the horror atmosphere reached 90%, suggesting that the project successfully improved immersion and tension.

Task

My main responsibilities on this project focused on level design, core gameplay implementation, and technical execution.

First, I needed to design level content that supported the core gameplay of navigating a maze under monster pursuit while maintaining a strong horror atmosphere.
Second, I was responsible for designing part of the maze levels, building the main gameplay area, and helping define the environmental art direction so the spaces would feel both playable and atmospherically consistent.
Third, I contributed to core mechanic development by using Blueprints to implement interactive environmental systems, while also refining lighting, audio, and chase pacing based on user feedback so that gameplay and atmosphere worked together as a cohesive experience.

Result

In the end, we delivered a horror puzzle experience built around the loop of maze exploration, monster pursuit, and demon-sealing objectives, successfully integrating level design, environmental atmosphere, and interactive mechanics into a unified gameplay framework.

Through this project, I learned how to carry a level from whitebox to final implementation in Unreal Engine 5, and gained a stronger understanding of how to embed core gameplay into level design more effectively. The final level design supported the project’s core mechanics and was well received by both teammates and players.