Steelrising

Spiders

Development Information

Studio : Spiders

Genre : Action RPG Souls-Like

Engine : Silk Engine

Link : Steam

Context : Production & Post-Production

Responsibilities

Level Design
Encounter Design and Pacing
Quest Design and Scripting

Project

Steelrising is an action-RPG with a strong emphasis on fast-paced combat that shares familiarities with a Souls-Like game, set in an alternate timeline based on the French Revolution of 1789.

To tame the flames of revolution igniting Paris, King Louis XVI unleashes a deadly army of clockwork robots on the people.

You are Aegis, a mysterious automaton, bodyguard to Queen Marie-Antoinette, and the Revolution’s last hope against a king gone mad.

My responsibilities

Level Design and layouts of the "Tuileries", "Montmartre", "Bastille" and Saint-Louis Hospital level.
Encounter Design and pacing of the "Tuileries", "Montmartre", "Bastille", "Cité", "Saint-Cloud" and Saint-Louis Hospital level.
Level Design of some side contents in other levels such as in the "Cité" and "Luxembourg" levels.
Quest Scripting (visual scripting) of some main and side quests.
Prototyped and Integrated all the elevators in the game.
Collectibles distribution and environmental storytelling for justification.
Polish all levels content to the highest quality and performance.
Integration of quests markers and codex.
Debugging and post launch corrections.

Tuileries level

One of the level during the first half of the game this level tasks the player with investigating the missing mathematician Bailly. Exploring a ransacked observatory in the Louvre leads to a boss fight against a giant automaton. Defeating it unlocks the "Dash" traversal ability, allowing exploration of new areas.

Inspired by the 1st arrondissement of Paris during the 18th century, I tried to capture the essence of the Tuileries Garden and the Louvre while making them playable.

Montmartre level

Set in the second half of the game, this level contrasts with the usual city streets by exploring the highly vertical gypsum mines of Montmartre. Built across four layers connected by a massive elevator, the player must navigate to find a paranoid Marat hiding from automaton patrols, then traverse the mines to go to the Bastille.

Elevator

The elevator was a new feature for the Silk Engine at the time, which I had to prototype and pitch to the team. I stayed pragmatic and decided to use the cutscene editor, relying on a series of cutscenes to move the elevator platform. While it was a tedious method for me, it allowed the rest of the technical team to stay focused on other urgent tasks. Later, I was tasked with implementing other, smaller elevators throughout the game using this same method.

Bastille level

Set in Paris's 4th district, this second-to-last level alternates between gardens and barricaded streets as players infiltrate the Bastille to find the automatons' creator, Eugène Vaucanson. After a boss fight against the executioner Sanson's machine, players discover the dying inventor.

Saint-Louis Hospital level

Set in the late-game DLC Cagliostro's Secrets, this macabre level explores the Hôpital Saint-Louis and its surrounding farms to reveal how the antagonist Cagliostro creates his automatons.

Aegis infiltrates this experimental slaughterhouse on a rescue mission. She successfully frees Théroigne de Méricourt but arrives too late to save Brissot from Cagliostro's upgraded mechanical guardian.

Cité level

Taking place during the first half of the game, this level is inspired by the 1st and 4th districts of Paris at the time. I worked mainly on iterations and side content, while the main layout was created by another level designer.

Side Quests

Flamel

Suspecting Cagliostro of desecrating graves to create the automatons, Abbé Grégoire sends Aegis to investigate Nicolas Flamel's tomb in the Cité level. By exploring the alchemist's crypt and workshop, Aegis manages to modify her own mechanical body to temporarily travel into the Limbo, free Flamel's captive soul, and destroy his Philosopher's Stone.

Mirabeau

Pursued by his dying father's hatred, Mirabeau is threatened with being sent back to the Vincennes dungeon forever by a sinister lettre de cachet. Aegis investigates the Parisian slums, discovers the assassination of Mirabeau's mother, and manages to intercept the infamous letter to save him from a lifetime of imprisonment.

Bailly

Recognizing Vaucanson's dancer-automaton, Bailly suspects Aegis harbors the soul of the inventor's daughter, Athénaïs. By exploring the young woman's former living spaces at the Tuileries and the Luxembourg gardens, Aegis awakens painful memories of her capture by Cagliostro, confirming her true human identity.

Necker

Minister Necker tasks Aegis with finding his wife, who disappeared during the rue de Bourgogne massacre, and recovering his financial shares locked up at the Tuileries. The investigation confronts the player with a major dilemma: after uncovering the wife's fate, Aegis must choose which faction (Robespierre, La Fayette, or Lavoisier) to entrust with this immense fortune, which is crucial for the country's future.

I was responsible for the level design of the Tuileries Palace.

Marat

Marat accuses La Fayette of deliberately sending the National Guard to be massacred by the automatons. Aegis's investigation indeed reveals a royal plot led by the Marquis to manipulate the people, forcing the player to decide whether to deliver these damning proofs to Marat to ruin La Fayette's reputation, or cover up the conspiracy.

I was only responsible for the level design.

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