lvl 05 Peren
- Hugo SaaL
- 28 juin
- 5 min de lecture
Work team
Level design : Hugo Saal, Nicolas Ducart, Jérémy Venturini
Art team : Cyril Tahmassebi, Isaac Hasdenteufel, Sahra Mekhaemar, Melanie Chenel, Arnaud Darche, Romain Racano, Julien Debono, Manel Es ,Estelle Panel
Introduction
During the early stages of GreedFall: The Dying World, only a few concept art pieces were available, and several new biomes still had to be defined.
One of them was the Peren biome, located in the Congregation of Merchants' territory. It was an exciting challenge, as players of the first GreedFall were already familiar with this region with the city of Serene, meaning we had to preserve its identity while giving it a fresh look for the sequel based on the DeVespe Familly.
The brief was to create a believable city that would serve as the foundation for the other levels in the Peren biome. I began with a rough sketch on my tablet while traveling to visit my parents, then refined the layout in collaboration with Arnaud, Cyril, and Isaac.
While waiting for feedback, we split the city into four separate levels, plus an underground area, to make it manageable within our engine's technical constraints (the silk engine)
Main District
Harbour
Old District
De Vespe Palace
Catacombes
By the end of pre-production, the Harbour District was cut from the project. Its quests and gameplay content were redistributed across the remaining levels to fit the revised scope.
We were working under strict engine constraints, including a maximum of 15 /20 simultaneously spawned characters (NPC and Fighters). We also had to heavily rely on terrain and natural occlusion to reduce visibility and keep draw calls to a minimum.
As the Main District evolved, performance optimisation became a key limitation. By the final iteration of the map, the content was fully locked to ensure a stable 60 FPS target on Xbox Series S and PS5, leaving no further room for additional gameplay or visual additions.
About Level 05 Main District
City Side
Using the top-down layout as a foundation, I gathered architectural and urban planning references from Google Maps, studying cities such as Venice, Rome, Florence, and San Gimignano. I then created a rough blockout focused on
establishing the city's overall scale, street network, landmarks, and navigation flow before moving on to more detailed iterations.
As more concept art became available, I refined the blockout and introduced new points of interest throughout the city. One of these was the Devespe Plaza, which evolved into the game's main merchant hub in the final release.
Thelem Ambassy
The city features several key landmarks, including the Thelem Embassy, the headquarters of one of the game's major factions and the starting point of an important main quest.
Working from the concept art, I translated the visual direction into a playable space, carefully balancing composition, scale, and navigation to create an environment that was both visually impressive and easy for players to explore.
Based on playtest feedback and close collaboration with the artists, we refined the overall layout and created a memorable hub for one of my favorite quest givers.
Navigation is one of my main priorities when designing a level. I pay close attention to readability, landmarks, and player guidance to ensure exploration feels intuitive without relying on visual cues. I also place great importance on clean and reliable navmesh implementation, making sure AI navigation remains robust while supporting the intended gameplay experience.
Coin guard's quarter
In every major city of GreedFall, there is a dedicated district housing the Coin Guard’s facilities : a mercenary faction, including bars, recreation spaces, brothels...
Originally, this content was planned to be part of the Harbour District alongside the Naute area (a faction responsible for navigation and ship handling in the world of GreedFall)
This quarter is particularly important to me, as it hosts a cutscene from Main Quest 06, which can also lead into a combat encounter. This required careful arena design to support encounters involving multiple participants (at least four player-controlled characters, four enemies, and two allied NPCs), ensuring proper readability, circulation, and combat space
I worked on this area in close collaboration with Mélanie, and it was a very rewarding experience. Seeing the volume and spatial composition come to life through her environmental art greatly enhanced the final result, reinforcing the scale and atmosphere we aimed for.
Country Side
We worked around four main points of interest: the Suburb, the Vineyard, the Deutan Manor, and the Ruins (archaeological site)
The overall design was inspired by Tuscan country side, Southern France, and Mediterranean landscapes, aiming to create support gameplay variety and exploration within the diffrents areas
Ruines
The Ruins are a sub-area of the countryside region and play a key role in Main Quest 07. To reach the main archaeological site, the player must pass through a heavily guarded encampment.
I designed multiple approaches to support different playstyles :
players can negotiate their way through using a diplomacy check,
progress in stealth by using vegetation and studying patrol routes
direct combat approach and fight their way through the camp.
Even though GreedFall : The Dying world is a narrative tactical RPG, I drew inspiration from games such as Crysis 3, Metal Gear Solid V, and Dishonored to design multi-solution encounters.
This approach allows players to tackle situations in differents ways, based on their playstyles within the same gameplay space.
Final Word
As one of the first maps I fully designed for a Commercial Project, I am satisfied with the result. The level offers many interesting spaces to explore, including chest and things to gather, traversal opportunities such as vaulting over walls, and hidden sections that reward curiosity.
I particularly enjoyed the research phase and the process of studying beautiful European cities to inform the design (now i want to see them all with my own eyes and not the google car cam).
Seeing the city come to life as quests, NPCs, and enemies were added was a very rewarding experience, and it strengthened my motivation to continue designing new levels in future projects.
Thanks for reading me and Kwa awelam seg Carants (goodbye friends)
Commentaires