
RUINATION – Environment, Level and Game Art
An extensive breakdown and work-in-progress pictures documenting the process can be found after the showcase.
Ruination, or „Project C“, was a longer prototype built my team and I created over the course of the semester at the HTW Berlin in our Game Design study. We were a team of five people, and I was responsible for Visual Development and everything 3D/2D related, lighting, as well as animating and rigging the main boss character in the middle.
This project here shows mainly my rework of the arena and environment / level design and also comparing the first prototype we showcased at the HTW High Five in 2022.
I. Showcase of the reworked scene
II. Comparison with the first prototype
III. Level Design and Concept Work
Project – Creating an engaging and detailed boss fight within a suitable arena.
What I did – In the group project I was responsible for Visual Development, 2D and 3D work and shared Level Design / Evironment Art with my colleague. In my 2023 rework, which is mainly the whole arena with added effects and reworked lighting, I also changed Level Design aspects and the overall flow of the combat stage.
My rework helped me immensely with bringing my design skill to the next level. The whole arena, the boss and overall look is heavily inspired by Final Fantasy and Dark Souls and combines fantastical elements (the huge meteor parts, boiling lava etc.) and stylized gothic architecture. I also dipped my toes into VFX with this project by creating a simple water shader, fire and smoke assets and the flowing lava textures.
A huge thanks to my wonderful colleagues – working on this project was an absolute blast!

Showcase
Please note that due to compression the pictures may appear blurrier.
What is RUINATION? Ruination was a playable prototype, in which the player fought a huge boss inside a detailed environment. The arena was supposed to be a a mix of cult/religious structures and alien elements. On a dark night, the creature came crashing down to earth – leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. And the people started worshipping the entity, that was amidst the huge crystallized rock formations – only half of it visible, not really emerging from its indestructible prison. It took many years for the cult to form and take over the land – and thus, creating brave heroes along the way, that do not conform with the way of the alien god.
And this is the scene we are about to explore.
You can find a short story of RUINATION at the end of the showcase that I wrote for our artbook.



Here is a quick comparison of the first version (left), that was public to play during the High Five in 2022 (a presentation over the course of a weekend, where the students of the HTW presented their games and people could play them). On the right you can see my reworked version. In the next chapter I will show even more pictures of the older version and explain what changed.















Comparing The Current Scene With The First Prototype


The first version of our environment features way more scattered assets and huge focus on the landscape.

The biggest change is possibly the boss itself. The whole scene was way too unfocused. I liked the huge assets, the comet, and the scale was there, but there was no directing, no composition.
Also, as you can probably see, the first version of our boss was sitting on a throne. This was really nice when it came to communicating the attacks of the boss – I animated the hand and fingers, so the boss would creepily raise its hand before an attack.

Our first arena looked way to cluttered and unfocused. I got rid of the complexity and also only used the landscape it certain areas.

There was more nature inside the arena, but I thought in my rework that this actually does not fit. The lava and molten structures should be way more prominent.

This was the first version of the wall, which I later made way more prominent.

Blockout. This was before the High Five in 2022, a presentation over the course of a weekend, where people were able to come to our university and test out all the different projects we created.
Level Design and Concept Work

Creating a whole new world for our game was one of the greatest challenges. Since I was responsible for Visual Development, I dived deep into learning Concept Art, creating Thumbnails and also (very important!) communicating ideas, visions and stories with my team in a way, that they can follow and understand what I mean.



Here is one of the player abilities on display. It has two versions – one is a shield, and the other is the attack stance. Our talented Technical Artist then implemented this system in our game.

The scene changed quite a lot over the course of the project – we also used the EPIC character in the beginning.

Gameplay from the first version we showcased during the High Five in 2022. Thank you very much for reading this block about RUINATION.