The Haunted Canvases

I’m honored to have received 2nd place in the Level Design discipline of Ubisoft Next 2025.

For the challenge, we were given a set of constraints and tasked with designing a level based on a specific objective.

Download the level on itch.io

Timeline

November, 2024 - January, 2025

Team

Individual Project

Role

Level Designer

Tools

Unreal Engine, Adobe Illustrator, Figma

Process

This competition was divided into two phases.

Phase I focused on creating a Mission Design Document.
From this round, Ubisoft Toronto judges selected 10 participants to move on to the next stage.

Phase II involved developing a playable blockout, where we transformed our 2D mission design into a 3D level and submitted a playable version.

Phase I - Mission Design

In Phase I, the objective was to create a Mission Design Document for a first-person shooter mission, where the player must "reach the top" while facing various challenges, including hostile enemies.

I spent one week developing the MDD, during which I explored three different concepts. The final idea I chose to implement for the competition was The Haunted Canvases.

🚩 Involves the player reaching the top and completing their objective

🚩 Allows for multiple playstyles and traversal

🚩 Includes enemy AI presence

Download the Mission Design Document

Phase II - Playable Blockmesh

During Phase II, after completing the playable blockmesh, I conducted extensive playtesting and made several iterations to improve the level’s clarity and overall player experience.

We were also given the opportunity to ask the Ubisoft Toronto team three questions about our blockmesh.
I’m grateful for their valuable feedback and guidance throughout the competition, and was especially encouraged by their positive response to my work.

Download Full Documentation

Download the Playable Blockmesh on itch.io

Mission Design

Mission Intro

We find ourselves facing a familiar challenge.
After the last incident at Elderwood University Library, the same supernatural phenomenon has appeared—this time at Mount Cimmerian.
Ghosts are emerging from the canvases in the museum, and your expertise is needed once more.

Your mission is to infiltrate the museum, capture the ghosts, and return them to their rightful canvases using your specialized weapon from the previous operation.
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This time, we've upgraded the gun with an increased shooting speed to improve its effectiveness in capturing spirits.A helicopter will be ready for your extraction.
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Plan your escape carefully after securing all the spirits.
Good luck.
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— Supernatural Resolution and Research Association (SRRA)

Mission Objectives

To guide the player smoothly through the level, I divided it into three clear sections, helping them understand their objective at each stage of the mission:

Objective 1–3: Tutorial Section

🚩 Eliminate the ghost and retrieve the spirit
🚩 Restore the ghost to its original canvas
🚩 Enter the Mount Cimmerian Museum

Objective 4: Core Gameplay

🚩 Restore all 7 ghosts to their original canvases

Objective 5-6: Story Climax and Ending

🚩 Find Ryan Taylor
🚩 Board the helicopter to escape

Playtesting

I conducted two main rounds of playtesting:
- First Round: Focused on map structure, objective clarity, and overall gameplay feel.
- Second Round: Concentrated on refining smaller details and fixing bugs to enhance the game.

Download the Playtest Report

First Round

For the first playtest, I invited one friend, whose feedback helped me make critical adjustments.

Questions Asked After Each Playtest:

📝 What was your overall impression of the level?

📝 How easy was it to navigate? What did you think of the layout?

📝 Were the objectives clear and easy to understand?

📝 Did you feel lost or unsure of what to do next at any point?

📝 What specific changes or improvements would you suggest for this level?

In the first round of playtesting, player felt aimless and lacked a clear sense of direction.

The east and west entrances consistently caused confusion, and many paths led to dead ends without any reward, making them feel unnecessary and frustrating to explore.

After implementing changes based on the first round of feedback, none of the second-round playtesters felt lost.
They highlighted several aspects that enhanced their gameplay experience:

Second Round

"The glass rooftop is nice. When I couldn’t figure out where the next ghost was, I saw the helicopter and realized there was an area outside. It felt rewarding, like I discovered something useful on my own."

"The first part of the map (Art Museum building) is well-designed. It encouraged exploration without being overwhelming, and I still understood what to do and where to go next."

"The objectives are clear but not too obvious, which made me feel like I was solving things myself."

"When I first started the game, I wasn’t sure what to do or what the mission ‘eliminate the ghost’ meant. But after going through the tutorial at the entrance, I understood the objectives and knew what to do next. The opening tutorial smoothed out the gameplay."

Observations on Gameplay Styles

Playtesters adopted a variety of gameplay approaches:

😶‍🌫️ Full stealth

🔪 Rushing guards head-on and eliminating them

🫣 Stealth until detection, then engaging in combat

🔍 Thorough exploration of every corner

🗝️ One player even attempted to guess the passcode without placing the ghost on the canvas, which made me realize that a randomized, more secure code would be necessary in a full version of the game.

The diverse gameplay approaches allowed me to identify and fix several bugs before submitting the challenge, which I’m very grateful for.

A special thank you to my playtesters:
Douglas Wong, Kerri Lam, CY Chan, Wendy Leung, Alex Chan, Louis, and Michelle Lai.

I’m incredibly grateful to all my friends who helped playtest the level.
Their time, support, and feedback were essential in improving the gameplay and identifying bugs I had missed.
I truly could not have come this far in the competition without their help.

Playable Blockmesh

For this project, I used Unreal Engine 5.4.4 and built all custom mechanics and debugging features using visual scripting instead of traditional coding.

Download the level on itch.io