New Quarter
A stealth level built around a single location; a tavern turned guard base, designed to be infiltrated twice under completely different circumstances.
New Quarter was the first playable prototype on the project; the level where the art team and I established what a performant, full-scale space actually looked like in VR. Every decision about footprint, sightlines, and interior complexity was made with one eye on what the engine could handle, and those benchmarks informed every level that followed.
Getting Into the Square
The level is structured around the tavern as a central objective. The player has been sent to recover a keeper relic that has fallen into guard hands, but the tavern where their contact was operating has been seized and turned into a guard base. To reach it, the player first navigates into the square through the sewers, the open square itself being the first stealth challenge. From there, two routes into the tavern: through the front door, or back into the sewers to reach the cellar directly.
Initial Sketching
The Hangman's scaffold was the level's anchor from day one. It was one of the few ideas that persisted through every iteration, even as its final position shifted during production.
First Playable
By first playable the level had three distinct routes through it.
Chariot Way
Chariot Way was designed as a branching junction, a space where the player could read their options and commit to a route
Pathing updated with square
With the inclusion of the square, I was able to add sewer routes beneath it, as well as allow clear entry points from either side, to help give the player a more flexible route through the mission.
Final Square
The final art pass. The Hangman's scaffold which was present since the first sketch ultimately moved to a different location during production, but its influence on the level's identity remainedChariot Way was designed as a branching junction, a space where the player could read their options and commit to a route
The level was designed around the core Thief pillar of open, systemic play. The relic is in the attic and the secret passage is in the captain's office, but how the player gets there is entirely their own. The three books needed to unlock the passage can be found and collected in any order, before the player even knows a puzzle exists. For those who want more direction, an optional visit to the information broker's house reveals the precise locations of each book. Players who explore get a shortcut. Players who don't can still piece it together organically. The building itself was designed to feel like a real, functioning guard base; rooms that made sense as a requisitioned space, not a game arena built around a puzzle.
Tavern Basement
The basement was designed to serve two functions, storage space and improvised jail. I worked closely with the narrative designer to make both readings feel believable in the same space. It also had to work structurally for the return visit, where the stakes of that layout become very clear to the player.
First Pass 2D Mapping
Interior Update / Final layout image
Final Art Pass
The Return Visit
On the return, the player has been captured. They wake in one of those jail cells, stripped of all their gear. The tavern's security has doubled. The mission is to move through the same building they've already infiltrated, but this time recovering their equipment piece by piece before escaping and destroying the tavern. The familiarity of the space works against them. Every room they navigated before now has to be re-read from scratch.
Market Alley — Cut and Repurposed Blockout
An earlier version of the level included Market Alley and the Hammerite House as additional routes. As the level developed it became clear both were pulling focus from the tavern, and the scope needed tightening. The decision to cut them was also a design argument for the broader game; with locations repeating across missions, the project needed at least one additional distinct space to help with pacing, tutorialisation, and stopping players from feeling like they were retreading the same ground. Rather than lose the work, the blockout was repurposed and simplified into the game's prologue, easing new players into the mechanics before the first real mission begins.
Market Alley Blockout01
Market Alley was a section originally part of the New Quarter level, but instead was repurposed for the games Prologue.
Back streets pathing
Multiple Branching Vertical Routes
Market Alley in Prologue
Repurposed as the Prologue, the space was simplified, stripped back to ease new players in. A good example of how cut content can find a second life elsewhere in production
Final Shots
