End of Abyss devs detail top-down horror design, built in Unreal Engine

End of Abyss is a top-down action Metroidvania set in an underground facility, and its developers have explained how they made it feel like horror. Section 9 Interactive was founded by former Tarsier Studios developers whose earlier work included Little Nightmares. The game was released on October 1 for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Co-founder Marcus Ottvall discussed the project in an interview with 80 Level.

The project started from an older prototype that had basic movement and gameplay gadgets. After moodboards and isolated test environments with enemies, the team chose an atmospheric setting: a fictional underground facility where something has gone wrong. Ottvall said the responsive movement came from that prototype and was kept, then tuned to suit the moodier direction.

On visuals, Ottvall pointed to movies, games, comics and anime from the 1980s and 1990s. He cited the practical effects of The Thing and the animation and framing of Ghost in the Shell and Akira. He said older Legend of Zelda and Metroid games influenced the creatures' almost cute look.

For lighting, the lack of natural light underground meant the team built its own fictional ambience. Scenes were often lit by only one or a few sources, with dust and fog particles adding atmosphere and a flashlight making some areas creepier. Ottvall called it a constant challenge to show enough of the environment for navigation and combat while keeping a sense of unease.

For creatures, the team began by discussing an enemy's features and attack patterns. They sketched quick concepts and built quick animations and feature mockups in the engine before committing to a final concept, model, rig and animations. Some enemies needed few iterations, others many.

The team used Unreal Engine 4 and then moved to UE5. Asset work was done in Maya, Blender, ZBrush, Substance Painter and Photoshop, plus some plugins and simple custom enemy destruction and behavior systems. Ottvall said the Metroidvania structure took a lot of time to test and iterate on, and that connected rooms with multiple entrances and exits were tricky. He added that the team became so good at its own game that judging difficulty balance was hard.