Rainy days have always been synonymous with sadness, and nighttime rain enhances this feeling, immersing players in a damp and melancholic atmosphere as soon as they enter the level.

As a nighttime level, everything is dark, and I didn’t provide the player with a flashlight. To ensure players know where they need to go, lighting is important.

Take the forest section as an example: I placed lots of yellow-and-black signposts for conveyance and added faint lighting near them. While there’s no clear light source, the subtle glow within the player’s visible range guides them along the open path.

This interior section symbolizes the boy’s journey from school to his professional life. In my narrative, an evil force continually tempts the boy to forsake his faith and embrace darkness.

To convey his confusion and hesitation during this period, alongside his unwavering inner resolve, I filled the space with dense fog effects, leaving the stone platforms leading to the endpoint clear.

I hope players, as they navigate through this space and observe their surroundings, can feel a sense of uncertainty about everything around them, while recognizing a deep inner resolve within.

In this section, the player exits from a corridor (lower left), passes through floating candles before falling into a trash pile. Ahead are several large clocks.

Floating objects are a key element in this level. Everyday items, magnified and floating, create a surreal atmosphere. After the initial surprise, the clocks, symbolizing the passage of time, and the candles, representing the mundane world, encourage players to reflect on their meaning in the story. The fall from a height further intensifies the emotional impact of the moment.

This is a narrow bridge where I disabled the player’s running ability, forcing them to slowly walk across.

On the sides of the planks are water plants, zombie corpses, and many floating medicine jars and picture frames. I want the player to feel the boy’s loneliness as he continues down this path, as well as the fear he feels from witnessing so many sacrifices.

To enhance the foggy atmosphere, I introduced a group encounter in this section. As the player enters the hall, zombies emerge from the fog and approach, creating a tense horror moment.

Despite the large number of zombies, the player can quickly parkour onto nearby platforms to evade combat. The lingering zombie screams heighten the tension.

This is the final encounter of the level, where the player must defeat a Screamer (a crying baby) and open the door to return to the starting point and finish the level.

The Screamer is a unique enemy in Dying Light, known for its cries and ability to stun players within its range, forcing them to either use ranged weapons to take it down or quickly close the distance for a melee kill.

I chose to place it here to provide a tense moment for the player, but it also symbolizes the boy’s past self. Killing his former self represents reconciling with the past and calmly facing his own death.

When designing, I aimed to align the gameplay sections with key story beats at the appropriate tension levels.

The parents’ quarrel scene marks the boy’s sad childhood, serving as the first climax of the story.

Following that, the foggy section reflects a crucial part of the boy’s youth, with a group encounter serving as the second climax, enhanced by tense music to heighten the experience.

Between the climaxes, the bridge sections provide a brief moment of calm for the player.

The plaza, as the final group encounter, symbolizes the war scene and serves as the ultimate climax, both in gameplay and story.

The story then resolves with the boy reconciling with himself, bringing the level to its conclusion.