We The People
Role: Level Designer - Contract | Engine: Unreal 5 | Oct 2025 - Present
Overview
We The People is an FPSMMO that focuses on realism, tactical gameplay, and horror as players are thrown into a dystopian post apocalyptic environment of the Pacific Northwest. In this extraction shooter, players will come up against both PvP and PvE encounters as they traverse from POI to POI.
Below you can view my contributions to the project and my design thinking behind each POI. This page will be updated as more POIs are completed.
Jump to a POI
Ranger Station
POI Gallery
Initial Sketches
When starting this project, I knew that I was given a 120x130 meter plot of land to work within and that there was a road passing by the "bottom left" corner of the POI that would be my connection point. I was also given a couple starting references that the Studio Head, Andrew Faulk, had put together. From all of this, I began compiling various reference images into a miro board to help guide the visual style of the space and I drew up a quick top down map to help set the scale of the buildings as well as how they could be laid out within the space that was given to me.
Once I began working in engine, I knew that I wanted to add in some verticality between the different spaces. I quickly blocked out the shapes of each building according to my top down map and then adjusted their height until it felt good to traverse the space.
Adding Details
After the initial blocks felt good to run around in, I began working on getting the shells of the buildings completed to get a true scale of the space. I also took time getting proper terrain as well as placeholder trees and boulders to make the outdoor space feel less open. This step helped iron out some wrinkles in the initial top down map. Areas like the outdoor deck needed to be expanded to accommodate player movement, and placement of some of the doorways changed to provide better flow for players.
Polish
Once the building shells and terrain were mostly complete, I began to polish the POI and get the blockmesh finalized. I created multiple props that could be used all around the POI both for decoration and for cover such as shelves, information stands, vehicles, etc. I wanted to create a space that felt slightly lived in and then abandoned, so I utilized some minor destruction such as flipped over furniture and some crashed vehicles to help provide some environmental narrative for players. This time also saw a few more changes to the interior layout of the main building to account for player pathing, cover, and sightlines
Combat Intent
When building this space, I wanted two different combat experiences for players depending on where they traversed.
For exterior spaces, I planned for combat to take place over mid to long range. This was done by providing the players with more spread out coverage from vehicles and trees and overall larger "dead man" zones between cover points. Players would need to strategically move around this space in order to not leave themselves open to PvP combat. That said, the more open spaces would allow players to feel safer for any PvE melee enemies they may encounter.
For the interior space I wanted to have a greater emphasis on close quarter combat. In order to achieve this, I made sure to keep sightlines fairly short by utilizing taller props or additional walls. I also made sure to provide many more cover points for players. This would allow them to quickly move forward safely and close in the gap to any enemies they may be fighting.