top of page
Unburied: Styrnik's Crypt
Level Designer | Solo Project | Skyrim
Summary
"Unburied: Styrnik’s Crypt” is a single-player Skyrim level. The player explores a mysterious dungeon, uncovering a new mechanic, unique puzzles, carefully designed combat encounters, and a myriad of exploration opportunities. This includes discovering an underground waterfall, encountering giant gargoyles, and delving into a forgotten tomb to find a one-of-a-kind shield.
Explore
Click on the images below for design insights and more details.
Entrance
The beginning of the level is integrated into the pre-existing Skyrim location of Cliffside Retreat. The intention was to create a natural inclusion into the overall game world.
Interior
The design goal for the level was to create an environment that felt like an area that began as an ancient tomb yet recently had been taken over by dark rituals. In this first section, with the ladder leading to the surface, is an imposing doorframe leading downwards, framed by candles and skulls.
Decoration
There were two design goals for decorations in the level. The first was showing the passage of time, so having destroyed pillars, dirt spilling in, and overgrown plants and mushrooms. The second was to show the current inhabitants and their evil rituals, through tools and books. This also served a gameplay purpose, by providing loot and items for the player to use.
Environments
Dungeons can frequently feel cramped. While this can be an important experience, one design goal was to also ensure there were areas that felt expansive. An example of this is section of the level where the ceiling is caved in, providing In the image is a ritual table, which the player travels to as quest objective. In the distance is a waterfall, which provides an interesting visual in the environment, as well as a treasure chest behind it for intrepid explorers.
Enemies
Skeletons and vampires and even gargoyles reside within the dungeon. These enemies progress from the weakest to the stronger as the player travels deeper into the dungeon. Enemy selection was based on two primary factors: combat balance and thematic consistency.
Lighting
A very important goal was creating lighting that felt natural but also guided the player and illuminated their surroundings. Throughout the level are torches and candles and braziers to provide illumination. At the same time, the level still has some areas that are more shrouded, to encourage the use of magic light spells and torches, both of which are found in the level. In the image has light spilling from the room, of which a quest objective is found inside.
Pathways
While the level is an overall linear progression, with the player heading through each room in turn, within each room the design goal was to provide opportunities for the player to navigate however they wish. In the image the player can head right or left to reach the upper floor, as well as travel across multiple bridges that connect the two areas.
Combat
In all the encounters with enemies in the level, the combat has opportunities for melee, magic, and/or ranged combat, as well as secondary options like stealth. This was designed intentionally, as Skyrim is explicitly an RPG where players should have the ability to approach combat however they want.
Traps
Looting treasure is why most players enter a dungeon in the first place. To reach the treasure in the image, players need to climb up to a platform and then jump over the floor plate, which will send spikes out of the forward wall to impale them if they do not. Treasure is scattered throughout the level, but in each case there is a particular reason why a player should receive it, whether through avoiding a trap, like in the above image, or exploring the environment and being carefully discerning in finding magic items and rare gems.
Objectives
As the player progresses through the quest, there is a distinct visual language with shrines being objectives to strive for, which is intentional and important, as later areas require either opening gates to access a shrine or performing some sort of ritual.
Puzzles
In addition to the main puzzle of empowering the magic artifact the player finds to unlock barriers to go deeper into the dungeon, there are many mini-puzzles throughout. In the image are three skulls, which must be returned to their nearby tombs. A script I wrote checks for all three to be returned, and once the player does so unlocks a lever which the player can interact with to progress.
Corridors
Rather than having corridors be simply transition rooms, the goal was to make each space have a small story to tell. In the image, a trap protects this area of burial urns. In another area, a dead bandit lies in a pool of blood, while a draugr rises from an alcove. In another, Skeever, the giants rat from Skyrim, broke through one of the walls, leaving dirt and mud everywhere, and the Skeevers present attack the player.
Arenas
To encourage exploration and provide satisfying combat encounters, I built a few arenas throughout the level. In these, larger scale combat encounters happened than in corridors, and these spaces provided opportunities for storytelling. This antechamber has been taken over by vampires, which the player fights, and finds the many things the vampires have done, from ritual items to dead bandits. This is a combination of satisfying combat and immersive environments that reflects the best of Skyrim.
Storytelling
While I wanted to focus primarily on environmental storytelling throughout the level, there is some written narrative as well. One is this ghost, who appears throughout the quest and gives the players cryptic hints before disappearing. Another is a lengthy journal written by a previous adventurer, which players find as part of the quest. However, the primary narrative is delivered simply through the player exploring the level, starting with skeletons, finding dark rituals conducted by vampires, discovering hidden blessed tombs, and finally stumbling onto monstrous gargoyles that the player has to sacrifice to complete the level.
Bosses
I wanted to conclude the level with a satisfying boss fight. I started with gargoyles, as I found the model sufficiently scary for my purposes. I doubled their size, and gave them an entirely new skill set, transforming them from life steal to raw physical damage, with an added ranged attack for distance players. I named them Midnight and Meridian based off their visual look. The player has to kill them and burn their ashes to progress the quest.
Secrets
Exploration is something I wanted to emphasize. There are many secret areas hidden throughout the map. The most significant of these is Styrnik’s Crypt, which is found by activating a secret level to open the chamber underneath where the gargoyles are pacing. This ties the overall narrative together, of the specter wishing the player to cleanse the desecration of the ancient burial site, while providing a unique custom shield I designed that provides double stamina regeneration.
Progression
To provide a natural method of gating player progression, I came up with these glowing barriers. To pass through them, the player needs to bless the amulet they find with the respective shrine found in each room. This provides a natural way to gate player progression and ensure they explore each area while providing a unique narrative for doing so.
Expansiveness
Environments in the level were crafted to reward exploration. However, to keep the scope of the level within limits while still providing an immersive experience, careful thought was given to the design of dead ends. For instance, in the image is the facade of a deeper structure. The door is shut and inaccessible, but it, like many other aspects of the level, is designed to provide a sense of exploration and vastness of space.
Spiders
One of the primary reasons for choosing decorations was ensuring that they fit logically within the space. I sparsely decorated the environments with spiderwebs and spider eggs, and built this corner sequence with spider ambushes. In this, there is a logical progression, and a purpose for the space.
Verticality
While the mobility options in Skyrim are limited, the opportunities for attack, both for the player and for enemies, are very wide. While much of the level is in enclosed corridors, there are many of this spaces, purposefully designed, where the player can travel to many different elevations.
Design
The overarching principles behind the design of this level was to create a level that is satisfying
Download
The level can be downloaded directly by clicking the Skyrim logo above. A readme is included.
The level can be downloaded from the Nexus Mods website by clicking the icon above.
bottom of page