SATISFACTORY
Satisfactory is a first-person open-world factory building game with a dash of exploration and combat. Play alone or with friends, explore an alien planet, create multi-story factories, and enter conveyor belt heaven!
Internship
Level Designer
Unreal Engine 5
THIS PAGE IS WIP
ABOUT SATISFACTORY
Satisfactory is a first-person open-world factory building game with a dash of exploration and combat. Play alone or with friends, explore an alien planet, create multi-story factories, and enter conveyor belt heaven!
CONSTRUCT
Conquer nature by building massive factories across the land. Expand wherever and however you want. The planet is filled with valuable natural resources just waiting to be utilized. As an employee of FICSIT it’s your duty to make sure they come to good use.
AUTOMATE
Construct your factories with gracious perfection or build intricate webs of conveyor belts to supply all your needs. Automate trucks and trains to reach your faraway outposts and be sure to handle liquids properly by transporting them in pipes. It’s all about minimizing manual labour!
EXPLORE & EXPLOIT
Venture on expeditions to search for new materials and be sure to put everything to good use. Nature is yours to harvest! You have vehicles, jetpacks, jump pads and more at your disposal to make the exploration easier. Equip the proper safety gear as well, just in case you run into the local wildlife.
PROJECT ROLE
LEVEL DESIGN INTERN
From September 2022 till June 2023 I joined Coffee Stain as a level design intern, working with the level design team on content for Update 8. After my internship I continued working on Satisfactory as a Level Designer. During my internship responsibilities included:
Populating biomes that were previously lacking gameplay content: placing rewards, creatures and resources and adjusting the terrain to create memorable moments for players exploring the world.
Iterating and polishing existing biomes in the game while keeping player progression and intended difficulty in mind.
Polishing existing caves by placing gameplay elements, improving their general flow and player leashing. And creating additional caves, focussing on challenging player movement and combat.
BIOMES
The world of Satisfactory is divided into different biomes and subbiomes. Each of which has an intended difficulty. The difficulty ramps up as the player makes their way through the world to collect needed resources to progress the game.
The biomes I worked on are marked on the map on the right. For these biomes the definition of done was as follows:
All gameplay elements are present, can be interacted with and are placed in the intended way and location.
Creature encounters are placed according to the difficulty guidelines set for the biome and each encounter has a clear reward.
- Caves and jump puzzles have been documented, built and polished. Unlocked player equipment has been kept in mind (e.g. blade runners, jet pack etc.) and metrics have been adjusted accordingly.
CAVES
CREATING NEW CAVES
Sketch
Sketching ideas for memorable gameplay moments, keeping character metrics, equipment/abilities, and different creature types and behaviours in mind.
Implementation
Ideas from the sketch are implemented, tested and iterated upon based on feedback, and have been included in Update 8.
POLISHING EXISTING CAVES
Old Cave
The initial cave as it was found in the game before Update 8.
Sketch
Sketching ideas to showcase ideas for improvement, keeping character metrics, equipment/abilities, different creature types and intended difficulty in mind.
Implementation
Ideas from the sketch are implemented, tested and iterated upon based on feedback, and have been included in Update 8.
UPDATE 8
Satisfactory is currently in Early Access and the level design work I’ve done during my internship was included in Update 8!