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A Strangers Request

Explore hidden Nordic Ruins in the southwestern mountains of Skyrim to discover the malicious events occurring in this beautiful oasis. This was a large solo project created for the purpose of expanding my knowledge of additional aspects of the Creation Kit such as scene design, world space creation, region editing, L.O.D. Generation, player dialogue and quest design. In addition, further grow my skills in level design focusing on the elements of pacing, environmental storytelling, level navigation flow, difficulty balance, and visual design that sparks the player desire to explore. 

Responsibilities:

  • 7 Dungeons

  • 1 World Space, Appx. 16 Exterior Cells

  • Enviornmental Level Design (Lod generation, region Editing, world space creation, layout, lighting, set dressing, clutter, SFX, FX, finalization)  

  • Gameplay Level Design (Enemy encounters, puzzles, content pacing, and navmesh)

  • Scene Creation /Scripting

  • Player Dialogue 

  • Quest Scripting

Environmental Highlights

Gameplay Highlights

Flooded Grotto

Environment

A dark, secluded damp, flooded grotto, at first glance, only home to a few disease infested skeevers, and patches of alchemically rich mushrooms but now, a cave designed to lure a variety of skyrims travelers, scholars, and champions to meet their unfortunate fate at the hands of a mysterious scholar. In fact, the most recent victims, a band of mercenaries, have found their way here yet the stranger, doesn't seem all to interested.

Gameplay

A small linear dungeon with a focus on story telling in the beginning culminating in a scene between the bandit chief and his prisoner. No branching paths were placed here to keep the initial story telling consistent. In addition, the only combat in the initial part is against a few skeevers to avoid to many distractions. My intentions were to front load this quest with a lot of mystery to spark the players curiosity.

Volkudir Armory

Environment

An ancient Nordic interior once abandoned now filled with condemned residents of Skyrim mining for ore and forging gear for their master. It is also the most effective defensive front to the ruins beyond and now the home of the mysterious mage his servants and his collections. Here the stranger experiments and imprisons select victims to extract their souls and condemned them to eternal servitude. 

Gameplay

Besides a short path through traps, a fire gauntlet, and a small enemy encounter in the beginning, this dungeon is nonlinear with two branches paths that lead back to the central chamber, the armory. Each branching path contains enemy encounters with Draugr and the Condemned, as well as a lever at the end to lower a bridge that unlocks additional access to puzzle pillars to solve the riddle in the central chamber. Then the player can face the "Collector" near his chambers in an embalming room section of the cave. 

Volkudir Exterior

Environment

The ruins of Volkudir are a beautiful place. Lightly snow-covered trees upon steep abrupt mountain peaks all surround the river valley below. Guard outpost occupied by draugr scatter strategically throughout. All though no matter the level of beauty, the evil persists. Here the mages pursue their soul experimentation throughout the connected armory, catacombs, and temple.

Gameplay

A small Worldspace offering open exploration gameplay providing a nice change of pace in contrast to the first two dungeons. Choose to pursue the critical path made obvious by the visual dominant in the scene, of which is the elevated large Nordic Temple at a high angle or explore the optional catacombs tucked away in the mountains just across the bridge. In addition there is plenty of loot tucked away in the Nordic rubble and corners of the playable space.

Volkudir Catacombs

Environment

This dungeon is housed by the third mage of the group that resides in Volkudir Ruins. In addition to draugr and skeleton that roam the Nordic halls, some starving beasts still roam this dungeon waiting for their next fresh bloody meal. Discover his experiments upon the beasts of Skyrim and the healing potential of transferring souls of the strong to those of the weak.

Gameplay

Explore this optional linear dungeon with a few exploration points and a focus on timing puzzles and magical traps. Timing puzzles get more difficult gradually to create a more welcoming difficulty curve. Completing the dungeon provides the player with one word of three needed for the Soul Harvest Shout. The exit leads back out into the Volkudir Ruins world space above its entry point. 

Volkudir Temple

Environment

Mathelon is in control here. The mage in charge of the captured prisoners and who is responsible for the caged displays of corpses throughout the temple and the adjacent library. His research is for the purpose of discovering what elements amplify a host souls potency. The most preferred methods by his hands is exsanguination and electrocution.

Gameplay

A short and combat light dungeon with the dominant elements being the prison scene and prison encounter as well as the pillar puzzle in the embalming room. There is no combat until the hall (Section 3) so the player can breathe and focus on the environment, prison scene, and Mathelon's note. The prison (Section 6) isn't accessible initially, the player must complete the Volkudir Library dungeon, accessible in the Enchanting Room (Section 5). It also contains a challenging encounter of atronoachs and draugr that serve as the last defense to the Sanctum.

Volkudir Library

Environment

Spiders infest the catacombs, patches of cobwebs hang stringing along the ceilings and open cave systems on the path towards the library. The only place safe from these beasts is the library. Unfortunately, the condemned servants have blocked off the path to protect themselves to protect their master, Mathelon, so he can continue his art and studies in piece. 

Gameplay

A medium sized linear dungeon that connects back to the prison in the Volkudir Temple. All of the 4 encounters involve frostbite spiders of various size expect the last encounter in the library. This provides a nice thematic change compared to the rest of the mods encounters. Small puzzles are present in the Spider Trap Room (Section 4) and the library (Section 6) contains a mix of draugr and condemned servants and, due to their numbers, it is the hardest encounter of the dungeon. 

Volkudir Sanctum

Environment

Move through a few small chambers full of treasure before setting foot into the specter's sanctum. The specter resides here guarded by his ghostly guardians. He rested in slumber until disturbed by Mathelon, one of the mages, and now sits at his throne waiting for the next subject. Here he slays them and absorbs the most potent of souls from the subjects brought to him by the three mages. 

Gameplay

The last and shortest dungeon of this questline. It simply houses a few rooms for looting and the final scene and boss fight in the specter's very large sanctum (3) at the end of the level. It contains the most difficult combat encounter of the project and after quest completion the path behind the specter's throne opens. This path (4) leads directly into an area of the Volkudir Ruins World space that contains a word of the Soul Harvest shout and a large amount of loot as a reward. 

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