Die Young

A gameplay-first section: little lore, a lot of movement. The approach is deliberately compressed — a narrow squeeze between the rocks — so the view opens up on the monumental facade all at once: you don't expect to find a hidden temple behind that gap, and the reveal is built to land as surprise first. The facade is the landmark that pulls the player in from a distance. From the higher ground the valley reads as a parkour playground with multiple vantage points, where the player can stop, look down and choose a route before committing to it. Inside the tombs the archaeological scaffolding is traversal and storytelling at once: it carries the vertical parkour, and it tells that the military on the island had turned the temple into a depot. Yellow tarps hanging off the structures catch the eye and guide the way through. Between the climbing and the views, the level keeps feeding the survival loop with resources to pick up. The real danger here is the fall: the same height that makes the vantage points worth climbing is what punishes a wrong step.

Keeping the whole scene harmonious to look at while keeping it functional to play. I deliberately leaned away from the usual signposting and relied on props that blend into the environment but still draw the eye — the yellow tarps being the clearest case: they read as leftovers of the site, not as level-design markers, and they still tell the player where to go.

A labyrinth in the dark, and a mandatory passage to move the story forward. Everything here is built for anxiety: fear, claustrophobia, occlusion, the feeling of running out of air. Daphne only carries a lighter, so the light barely reaches — to find her way the player has to latch onto reference points: a distinctive decoration, a light source placed on purpose at a key spot. Side paths branch off the main route and lead to secret areas with collectibles, so pushing deeper into the tombs stays a choice the player makes. Rats and snakes scattered through the tombs can kill, and so can a fall at a few key points.

Building a golden path that stays clear and not too hard to follow, while still leaving the player room to explore and go deeper into the tombs for valuable items. In the dark, with a lighter as the only source of light, that balance rests entirely on reference points — distinctive decorations and light sources placed at key spots.

The mine tracks are there because the place calls for them — but they are also what guides the player: they carry the golden path and pull towards the entrance without a single artificial marker. The island hides many tombs, and the Old Mines simply hid one of them, so the modern dig running into an ancient facade is the place telling its own story. Side paths branch off to encourage exploration and pay the player back for it. Rats, snakes and soldiers can all kill here, and so can a fall from the greater heights.

Building an environment that stays harmonious as a whole and at the same time reads as a faithful, believable mine.

The Military Post is split into sections — headquarters, military storage, shooting range, quarters, antiquities warehouse, dog training camp, radio tower — and each one offers a different gameplay experience and different rewards. There is no forced route: the player can take the sections in whatever order they prefer. The diegetic map board exists because the post is big, and the player needed a map that was ready at hand and easy to read to get their bearings. The whole place is built to be approached either stealthily or in a more action oriented way, depending on the player: I always try to offer more than one gameplay solution, to give agency. The antiquities warehouse holds the objects collected around the island, the ones that would then be sold on the black market. The opposition is a strong presence of regular soldiers and ranged soldiers with crossbows.

Working out which areas could plausibly exist inside that military post, and then building a bespoke experience for each one of them without ever turning repetitive.

The final arena is built on the same principle as the rest: always offer more ways to play. The player can use the temple itself to parkour or to hide, and the vegetation works as cover too — stealth, traversal and a direct approach are all viable. The monumental staging was essential to give the finale more flavour: it needed an area set high up, imposing, new, majestic. The player already knows this is the last place, because this is where the helicopter has to be reached. The boss has no phases, but it is backed by ranged enemies, melee enemies and dogs.

Balancing the open, dangerous ground against the places where the player can hide and get some breathing room.