NewZozobra

Overview

NewZozobra is a personal horror prototype in Unreal Engine 5, still in active development. It focuses on atmosphere, exploration, environmental escalation and player tension.

This case study covers one compact playable level. The design problem behind it is simple to state and hard to solve: a horror level should make the player tense for the right reasons, not confused for the wrong ones.

The visuals are blockout, not final art. The goal at this stage is to validate the layout, the guidance and the pacing before investing in art.

Design goals

• Clear left-to-right progression. The final objective is marked with green light and visible from the start, so the player has a destination before they understand the route.
• Visible rewards. Pickups and the exit are shown before they can be reached. They work as promises that keep the player moving, even through danger.
• Lighting as guidance. Light sets the mood and also tells the player what things mean.
• Readable risk and reward. Some collectibles sit on safe routes, others next to danger. A pickup under red light is possible, but not free.
• Checkpoint pacing. Checkpoints split the level into readable chunks and remove frustration after the hard beats.
• Backtracking without punishment. Every pickup is required, so a missed one can always be recovered.

Level design

The first sketch reads the level in two ways: a top view for navigation and room structure, and a side view for vertical flow, jumps, platforms, lethal zones and pickups.

The player moves left to right, but the level is built as three gameplay areas:

1. Onboarding. Basic jumping and spatial reading in a controlled space. An enemy watches from above while two pickups sit nearby.
2. Mechanical pressure. Jumps get harder, platforms are less forgiving and enemy pressure increases.
3. Route interpretation. Not every path is safe, useful or correct. Some routes look right but are incomplete.

First the level teaches movement, then it raises the execution difficulty, and finally it challenges the player’s assumptions about which path is correct.

Lighting language

The level is dark on purpose. The job of the lighting is to make that darkness functional:

Colour	Meaning
Green	Reward, pickups, health, progression, final objective
Cyan / blue	Guidance, calm, windows, readable points of interest
Red	Enemy pressure, danger, lethal zones, urgency
Darkness	Uncertainty, tension, horror atmosphere

Gameplay systems

Pickups as keys. The final door only opens when every pickup has been collected. That gives collectibles a mechanical purpose instead of being score or decoration.

The backtracking moment. The last pickup is placed off the natural forward path. When the player reaches the door and it does not open, they realise something is missing and have to re-read the space behind them. Because the level supports going back, missing a pickup is never a fail state.

Enemy zones. Each enemy controls a zone. It only chases the player inside that area, but once activated it does not stop until the player leaves the zone or is defeated. This makes danger spatial and readable: certain rooms are dangerous territories, not places with random enemies. Enemy behaviour is kept simple on purpose while the layout and pacing are still being evaluated.

The lethal beat. A red-lit death zone in the middle section breaks the rhythm. Before it the player explores; around it, movement becomes deliberate and survival-focused.

Iteration and open questions

So far the level has been tested through self-testing, camera reads and design review. The next step is testing with other players and comparing the intended flow with what players actually do. The questions that test should answer:

• Do players understand the left-to-right progression without instructions?
• Are pickups readable in the dark without looking artificially highlighted?
• Is it clear that every pickup is needed to open the door, and does the backtracking moment feel fair?
• Are enemy zones readable enough to know when you are in danger?
• Does the lethal zone feel like a fair challenge or an unexpected punishment?

Lessons so far

Atmosphere and readability have to work together. A horror level can be mysterious, but the player should always be able to read where danger is, where rewards are and where the objective is. Building a level is not the same as finishing it: it needs testing and observation, which is exactly what we do for other developers in our design reviews.