Satisfactory

In 2023 worked for Coffee Stain Studios on their Early Access game Satisfactory. Part of my job was decorating the caves, which at this point used deprecated assets or were completely undecorated. Here are two of the caves I did which are live in the game right now.

Windblown Hollow

Located between the Swamp and the Abyss Cliffs with many entrances and exits. The cave consists of two different chambers that are separated by a cracked wall (which can be opened with explosives). Both chambers are quite open with a lot of nature spilling in from the surrounding biomes.

Entrance from the Abyss Cliffs

One of the many entrances into the cave

Hidden Power slug pickup

Wall ivy have some leading flowers to it's hiding place

Outer Chamber

The cave chamber on the Abyss Cliffs side. Lots of rubble to explain the missing ceiling with vegetaion on top to signal that the cave in was a long time ago.

Cave Window

Leads out to the Abyss cliffs (is also an alternate entrance)

Cracked Wall

Power slug pickup and the Cracked wall which leads into the other chamber of the cave

Inner Chamber

The chamber on the side of the Swamp biome with a purple power slug at it center, highlighted by godrays from a hole in the ceiling.

Swamp side Entrance

Another entrance which frames the powerslug in the middle of the chamber

Radioactive water

Small puddle of water since the swamp is a very humid biome. Radioactive rocks which makes the slug harder to get.

Another swamp-side Entrance

A blue powerslug to draw attention to the cave opening

Mushroom Cave Jumping Puzzle

Located on a cliff side in the Western dunes. Small self-contained cave with only one entrance/exit. Inside there is a jumping puzzle where the player follows mushrooms to find a purple power slug pickup. The cave lies in a very foliage-dense area which led to limitations on how much foliage was allowed inside for performance reasons.

Entrance

Blue powerslug pickup draws player attention. Cave entrance is surrounded with ivy and roots to make it more noticable.

First mushroom

Mushroom right at the caves opening. The player sees hints of the different colours in the cave biome.

Cave Transition

Transitioning from the forest biome into the cave biome.

Cave inside reveal

Quick overview of the cave.

First Part of the jumping puzzle

Purple ivy is showing the way along the the mushrooms.

Second Part of the jumping puzzle

The caves keepis moving upwards, leading mushroom.

Third Part of the jumping puzzle

More ivy and haning lights to guide the player. No mushrooms this high up. Jumping is more challenging.

Drop down

The drop from here is far, but there is water at the bottom to catch the player if they fall.

Landing area

Small area where the player restarts the jumping puzzle if they fall.

Ceiling Ivy

Purple ivy and hanging lights. Stalactites to explain the waters at the bottom of the cave.

End

Last part of the puzzle with the reward, a purple power slug!

Some Lessons learned

Working in a big world with many collaborators
Working with UE5's World Partitioning system
Advanced Foliage and Mesh-painting techniques
How nature in general behaves (even if it is fictional)
Environmental storytelling from a nature-centric perspective

I learned a lot from this project! I got a lot more familiar with some of UE5's tools like the World Partitioning system, Foliage, and Mesh painting.

I also learned a lot about how nature works on this alien planet and also how it works on our own planet.

The way that nature can tell stories was something I hadn't thought much about before this and it is something that I take with me in all future projects.

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Markus Norén

Level Designer & Technical Designer

Satisfactory

Windblown Hollow

Mushroom Cave Jumping Puzzle

Some Lessons learned