Directive 8020 is a cinematic narrative and stealth horror game, that is part of the Dark Pictures Franchise. The game is set aboard a spaceship that crash lands on the planet Tau Ceti F and follows the crew as they attempt to escape the planet while being hunted by an alien threat. The narrative is inspired by a combination of ‘The Thing’ and Lovecraftian horror, featuring aliens capable of mimicking the appearance of the playable characters. This game has a greater emphasis on levels and AI encounters compared to the previous games in the series which were very cinematic focused.
On this project I was part of the level design team, though as part of my role I was required to undertake a variety of other design tasks, and worked closely with the other departments. I was given ‘ownership’ of several levels, for which I was responsible for creating the initial drafts and then developing them in-engine.
On this project I was heavily involved in white-boxing the ship environment, working closely with art to ensure that everything matched the measurements they provided and helping to adjust the environment as levels evolved across development.
I also responsible for the vertical slice level and so worked closely with the AI team on this project to design stealth encounters. As part of this I helped iterate on ideas from a level design perspective as they explored the vision for what AI encounters should look like in a dark pictures game.
Official website for the game Directive 8020
