TSBNext - Steeven GALEAU

— PROJECT NAME

The Sandbox Next

— SUPPORT

Mobile

The Sandbox Next is a mobile multiplayer shooter prototype taking place in a voxel metaverse, mixing "The Sandbox" identity with various IPs.

Up to 20 players are competing in 5minutes rounds.

- Get points by hunting zombies and players to climb the ranking.

- Reaching the top will make you visible by everyone constantly, making you an easy target.

Level Art & Level Design

Tools :

- Game Maker (in-house Engine), UE 5.6

- Miro, Figma

- Jira

Tasks :

- Level Design & Level Art

- Optimization : level & asset analysis, exchange with devs & artists to handle memory & gpu consumption.

Difficulties :

- Working across multiple temporary tools depending on other projects.

— ROLE

Level Designer

Level Artist

— DATE

June 2025 – May 2026

Challenge :

Due to the early stage of the projet and the direction, TSB Next's main challenge regarding Level Design was to answer both the desire for "large and appealing maps " with a light and non-definitive gameplay and the mobile support aspect (controls, performance, game time…).

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Objective:

- Designing an interesting play environment making a good use of the few gameplay elements.

- Highlighting the voxel Art style while avoiding TSB Legacy's weakness (too empty or inequal, lack of readability and affordability)

- Keeping the environment and workspace versatile to accomodate for any direction change.

- Ensuring a smooth experience on mobile (performance, touch control friendly layout..).

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Approach : What gameplay to highlight?

Controls : Double jump, run, pick up ammo/health pack.

Gameplay : Kill zombies and players for points while staying alive.

With the lack of crouch/dodge and reload, and instant hit shot (no ballistic or bullet travel) & with an auto aim, the gameplay is quite different from standard modern shooter :

- The first player to find & hit the other is usually the winner.

- Fights in themselves are less strategic in favor of hiding and timing.

Consequently, I deemed levels should focusing on rewarding the knowledge of map, good use of corners and covers.

The intended player experience should be to roam around the map, looking for zombies (low-risk points), healthpack and ammo while being wary of enemy position.

More experienced players are expected to wait and embush others in critical points (crossroads, balcony..)

Structure

The maps are split into sub areas/squares, more or less open, and interconnected.

Each of these areas have golden paths that players can take to clear them while collecting ammo and killing zombies, by being more or less careful.

Each sub area is connected through several access points to others, so players jump from an area to the other depending on their preferences : if an area have more verticality or ambush potential…, if there are fights that they want to avoid…

Within each of these sub areas are sorts of arenas, zones with clusters of resources and enemies, lots of covers. These arenas are both placed and designed as the crossroad where players will meet and fights.

This creates a natural loop of

Farm for ammo/health/points to prep for fight => Stumble upon an other player, fight for more points => Farm for ammo/health to recover

“Block Ops” City map – Various subareas interconnected

Each has it’s own “main color” and visual theme

With additional paths (Balcony, subway, tramway..), specific axis for player to cross the map and take others by surprise

With example of several player loops, each allowing player to continuously walk around along zombie & pick-up’s respawn

The Idea

While not a main element of the demo and not something really thought, I wanted to add a narrative aspect to make this gameplay demo more memorable and help player connect with the Sandbox's world

To do so, I built upon existing concepts from the TSB Brand that had success on previous games, as well as the core concept of a metaverse :

- A Virtual World

- A Melting pot of themes, worlds and IPs/Brands

- Portals and connectivity between worlds

A narrative environment

With the limited tools available, the resulting approach was a level built with a environmental storytelling and one main concept :

A world invaded by IPs and brands, a disrupting layer added ontop of a base setting.

Each main sub-area have a simple identity on top of which a very contrasting theme linkable afterwards to a fitting IP. For example : A desert town or a metropolis plaza with a Cyberpunk world invading, that could be linked to the "Captain Laserhawk" IP or similar futuristic partnerships.

This makes each subarea standout, more easy to recognize and helps player memorize each of them more easily.

The surroundings of a gas station buried under sand, algae and coral reefs. Could