WORLD & LEVEL DESIGN · THE SANDBOX
Dungeon SiegeCrypt
Every step below Ehb brings a new threat.
▶ Watch gameplayTHE EXPERIENCE
A descent with a story.
Beneath the graveyards of Ehb, ancient passages have become home to restless undead and grotesque creatures. This Dungeon Siege experience, developed by Massive Black, Room 8 Studio, and Square Enix, brings The Crypt into The Sandbox through a combination of atmosphere, combat, and exploration-driven storytelling.
Ulora the Scribe gives the journey its narrative thread. Her investigation draws the player from the graveyard into the crypt, where environmental clues, discoveries, and increasingly dangerous encounters reveal the history of the place. The descent is designed to build tension as the player moves farther from the surface.
My contribution
My responsibilities covered quest design, story design, and the design of characters, bosses, and enemies, including enemy AI. I also contributed light scripting wherever the production needed additional support.
This work connected the player’s objectives with the characters and threats encountered during the descent. Quests and story gave the journey its context, while boss and enemy design shaped the challenges players had to understand and overcome. The project was developed collaboratively with Massive Black, Room 8 Studio, and Square Enix.
GAMEPLAY & WALKTHROUGHS
Descend into the crypt
A complete playthrough of the Dungeon Siege Crypt experience.
FROM THE WORLD
The development gallery
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Environment development
Development captures document the graveyard and crypt environments.
Map structure
Overview images show the layout and progression between spaces.
Hazards & encounters
Screenshots accompany the documented movement hazards and combat encounters.
Creatures of the crypt
Creature studies from the experience, developed with the original Dungeon Siege designs in mind.
Additional captures
Further views of the completed experience and its environmental details.
BEHIND THE EXPERIENCE
Design decisions
Designing the descent
Development followed a top-down approach, starting with the surface graveyard and extending into the underground spaces. The route introduces increasing enemy variety and environmental complexity as the player moves deeper.
Pressure through movement
Airborne skull barriers make positioning part of the challenge. Interactive graves can release waves of skeletons, turning apparently quiet spaces into encounters and asking players to respond to their surroundings.
Narrative inside the level
Ulora’s investigation connects NPC dialogue with environmental clues and discoveries. Rats, mummies, and ranged spectral enemies vary the combat demands while the unfolding mystery gives those encounters a place within the journey.