Overgrown swing set

This project marks my first dedicated step into Environment Art within game engines. My goal was to create a scene that captures atmosphere and mood while also serving as a potential backdrop for a main menu. Drawing inspiration from TLOU, Little Nightmares 1 & 2, Playdead’s Limbo and Inside, as well as the layering techniques of Hollow Knight, I set out to balance a sense of unease with subtle comfort.

My focus throughout was on composition, lighting, and depth to create an immersive, game-ready environment. I approached the scene as if it were part of a horror-inspired title, making design choices that supported that vision. The environment runs above 60 frames per second in the Unity editor on mid-tier hardware. While I can see areas for further optimization, I was satisfied with the performance for a personal project. In the future, I may revisit this scene to push optimization further and better showcase my ability in performance-focused workflows.

This project gave me the opportunity to strengthen and expand a wide range of skills, including 3D modelling, PBR texturing, rigging and animation in Blender, lighting and post-processing techniques, LUT creation, shader work, and Unity’s landscape and animation systems. I also want to acknowledge the invaluable feedback I received during development, each suggestion pushed the piece further and helped me refine both my technical and artistic approach.

Overall, this project has been an important milestone in building my confidence as an environment artist, allowing me to bridge creative vision with technical execution.