Project Babel
Project Babel
- Team: Henrik Wilhelm Sissener, Fabien Guillaume
- Roles: Co-Creators / Developers (3D Art, Design, Programming, Animation)
- Platform: Unreal Engine 4
- Status: Development Concluded (Proof of Concept / Vertical Slice)
High-Level Summary
Project Babel was an ambitious two-person project conceived as an atmospheric 3D adventure. Inspired by the minimalist storytelling and exploratory spirit of games like Journey and Abzu, Babel placed the player in the role of a lone wanderer in a vast, desolate world. The central quest was to navigate this mysterious landscape, solve environmental puzzles, and ultimately gain access to the enigmatic Tower of Babel at the heart of the world.
Core Vision & Gameplay
Our vision was to tell a story wordlessly, through visuals, sound, and interaction alone. The player would have been free to explore four distinct open-world areas in any order they chose. Each zone contained unique platforming challenges and puzzles that required gathering key items.
- Non-Linear Exploration: Players would piece together the world's history and their own purpose by exploring the ruins and discovering the correct placement for the items they found.
- Dynamic World: We experimented with a dynamic weather system that would shift based on the player's story progression, altering the mood and environment.
- Stealth & Consequence: Upon entering the final area, the Tower of Babel, the gameplay would shift. Players would need to avoid automaton "Librarians," whose purpose was to eject intruders. The game was designed with multiple endings, with the "good ending" only achievable by collecting every key item, encouraging thorough exploration.
A key point of pride for us was bringing our concept art to life in playable 3D scenes within UE4, culminating in the creation of a teaser trailer that captured the intended mood and scope of the game.
Post-Mortem: Challenges & Key Learnings
Ultimately, the ambitious scale of Project Babel proved too large for a two-person team with limited time, and development was concluded. However, it remains one of our most significant and formative learning experiences, serving as a deep dive into the entire game development pipeline.
Key Challenges:
- Scope Management: Learning to reconcile a grand vision with the practical limitations of a small team.
- Technical Pipeline: Overcoming technical hurdles with remote source control (version syncing for huge art files proved especially difficult).
Invaluable Skills Gained:
This project provided critical, hands-on experience in:
- 3D Art Pipeline: Modeling (High & Low Poly), UV mapping, and texturing.
- Character Development: Simple rigging and animation to bring characters to life.
- Unreal Engine 4 Development: In-depth work with Blueprints, material creation, and procedural mesh generation.
- Game Design: Level design for open-ended exploration and intuitive puzzle creation.
Our most important takeaway was the importance of rigorous pre-production. If we were to start over, we would drastically scale down the initial scope and focus on blocking out and testing core gameplay loops with basic assets before ever committing to final, polished 3D models. This project taught us how to fail, learn, and build a stronger foundation for future work.
