‘‘Something’s off!’’
A First person puzzle Experience
ROLE:
Level Designer
TEAM:
6 pepole
TIME:
4 weeks
Engine:
Unreal 5.6
About the project
Something’s Off is a spot the difference game where you play as a house broker, documenting subtle nighttime changes, “anomalies,” by comparing properties to their daytime photos.
The game was developed over four weeks in Unreal Engine by a team of six, with a strong focus on level design, pacing, and environmental storytelling. I contributed across multiple areas, with level design as my primary responsibility.
MY TASKS:
Creating a prototype
Designing two playable levels and a tutorial
Shaping and decorating believable environments and gathering assets
Visual scripting gameplay features
Creating marketing materials (trailer, Itch site)
This project allowed me to combine gameplay, story, and environmental design while strengthening my Unreal Engine skills.
Level design
dESIGN focus
The playable area in this game is very condensed, making every design decision important and noticeable. My intention was to create a cohesive environment that feels like a lived in home. The non-linear gameplay leaves the player much room for self exploration and everything has to have the flow and feel of a real apartment.
The main mechanic of the game, the subtle changes that appeared during night, had to feel intentional and drive the player forward. It had to make the player want to visit every space and room again and look even closer. The changes can hint at a bigger story if examined close enough.
pROCESS
The project began with a simple prototype created before programmers joined the team. This early version helped clarify the core level design goals and establish what the spaces needed to support.
My focus was on designing believable environments with realistic scale. I used real world references such as floor plans, furniture websites, and places I have visited in real life, including my childhood home and friends’ apartments, to ensure accurate proportions. Each level started with multiple floor plan sketches, from which I selected the layout that felt the strongest.
The chosen layout was rebuilt in engine using simple blockouts, allowing constant testing of scale, flow, and traversal. Since the gameplay is non linear, it was important that players could quickly understand the layout without getting lost, so spaces were kept open and easy to navigate.
Once the blockout was finalized, I refined the spaces through careful placement of details to support readability and observation. Early versions contained too much visual noise, so I simplified the environments, focusing on clear shapes and visual clarity to support the spot the difference gameplay while maintaining believable, lived in spaces.
A big part of my work was also level decoration and ‘‘anomaly’’ placement, in each level we had over a 100 changes that was in the night pool. This was to create repleayability and variations between the runs.
I placed every element with intent and used environmental storytelling to reflect the tone of the game’s title. The main level is a couple’s home that appears normal during the day, but at night key details subtly reveal a different story.
ESTETICS
We did not have dedicated 3D Artists or VFX artists, so I was in charge of sourcing asset and deciding on our general style. I built a small internal asset library and focused on maintaining a consistent visual estetic throughout the environments aswell as having alot of variation to make everything feel natural and belivable.
BALANCE
Because the core mechanic is finding anomalies, the game’s difficulty depended heavily on the placement of objects that appear or change at night. This required careful attention to both individual details and overall decoration, as these elements worked together to guide the player’s focus during a quick glance at the environment.
The game was playtested frequently, and I iterated on the levels based on feedback and observed player struggles. Alongside these adjustments, I enjoyed adding small details, building environmental stories, and hiding many easter eggs to make the game feel more engaging and replayable, allowing players to discover something new on future playthroughs. One of my favorite details was the posters. Since this was our final school project, I gathered posters from the team’s previous game projects and placed them throughout the levels as a subtle tribute.
Visual Scripting
The anomalies were all created using visual scripting. They are not all static, some are more intricate than simply switching a mesh or changing an object’s placement. The anomaly system works as a pool of possible changes that are randomly selected. Below are two examples of anomalies that I created, along with an explanation of how they work.
The coin:
If the Coin is chosen, it randomly makes a coinflip by it self. I had fun playing with physcics and using simple impulse nodes to make it shoot up and spinn in the air. Getting the spin just right took some time, but I am happy with how it turned out.
Morsecode lamp:
Our producer tasked me with creating a lamp that “blinks.” With time to spare, I decided to have fun with it. To make it more intentional and special, I wanted the lamp to blink a message in Morse code. This system ended up being somewhat complex, and I had to be creative to get it working. The system works with any Morse code you put in, but dashes and spaces need to be switched out with other symbols due to engine limitations.
Reflection
Looking back, this project represents my strongest learning experience so far. Working within a small team and a limited timeframe pushed me to make clear design decisions and focus on delivering a complete and polished experience.
This was also the project where Unreal Engine truly clicked for me. I developed a deeper understanding of how to prototype, iterate, and build systems directly in engine, and how level design, scripting, and environment work together.
If I were to redo the project, I would have liked to include more levels. Due to time limitations, two levels that were fully blocked out in engine were cut. While this was the right decision for the project, I would have liked to see those ideas realized to the same level as the finished content. Visual storytelling was introduced relatively late in development. With more time, I would have liked to develop this aspect further from the start, as it strongly aligns with how I prefer to approach level design in this type of game.
Although the game could easily scale with a larger team or more time, I am proud of what we achieved with the resources available. Contributing across multiple areas gave me a broader perspective on development, while level design remained my primary focus. Designing believable spaces, placing intentional details, and guiding players naturally taught me valuable lessons in pacing, environmental storytelling, and iteration, all of which I continue to apply in my work.