Mandala Form

The Worldbuilding Mandala serves as a multidimensional matrix to systematically connect geography, infrastructure, and narrative context into a cohesive sub-glacial ecosystem. 

It tied arctic weather , bioluminescent flora directly to real-world Svalbard facility architecture. 

Provided a strong reference for subsequent specific world-building for the whole team, reducing a lot of pointless arguments.

2D Noise / Prototyping 

In my first attempt within Blender, I utilized a 2D Noise texture node combined with a Distortion node to prove that the technical approach was viable

But the output made the landscape look like "dry land dotted with small puddles" rather than "distinct landmasses emerging from a vast ocean. 

Voronoi / Smoothing 

To fix the issue where the noise-generated rings felt too random and jagged, I switched to utilizing the distance factor of a Voronoi texture.

But the output made the landscape look like "dry land dotted with small puddles" rather than "distinct landmasses emerging from a vast ocean." 

Custom Heightmap 

Finally, the hand-drawn heightmap approach gave us the perfect balance: a large, flat, and walkable gameplay surface combined with rich, organic natural details along the margins. 

Emission

Inspired by the natural phenomenon of bioluminescent dinoflagellates (often called "Blue Tears" or nocturnal algal blooms), I created and applied an emissive texture map to the material, successfully bringing the glowing fluorescent fungi to life within the final dark environment.

Playable Near-Ground Slopes: 

Modeled as low-altitude, smooth hills with heavy snow accumulation. The gentle slopes intuitively signal to players that this area is safe to traverse without climbing gear. 

Distant Mountains: 

Designed with sharp ridges and steep cliffs using GAEA to create a vast, cinematic arctic horizon that defines the boundary of the world. 

I balanced physical light absorption with surface roughness with the use of Single Layer Water material in Unreal, allowed us to generate realistic, high-fidelity surface reflections for the skybox and auroras, while maintaining enough transparency.

I intentionally abandoned the stereotypical ‘’cap-stem‘’ mushroom look, based my design on Trametes versicolor (turkey tail mushrooms), aims to create features rich, layered bands of color that naturally vary depending on growth conditions, which fit our organic worldbuilding perfectly.

Aims on create a luminous, crystal-like mushroom, with Parallax Occlusion Mapping to simulate internal optical depth 

It gives the impression that the bioluminescent matter was suspended deep within the crystal matrix, glowing intensely from the inside out.

At first, I wanted to use a hard-surface sci-fi theme to make a small metal and glass cabin for the player's bunker. 

But halfway through, I realized this didn't fit our story. Our notes and setup showed that this building should look like it had been used in bad weather for a long time. My first design looked too futuristic and lacked a realistic feeling.

After, I looked at real polar research stations for reference and remade the bunker. 

I noticed that because snow keeps piling up in the Arctic, most real stations are built high up on legs or stilts. I used this real-world logic to remodel the bunker, making it look much more believable.

With the inspiration of a Chinese research station, I built this Arctic research bunker.

The interior of the bunker was inspired by my own compact student dorm, focusing on a space where work and private life are forced to coexist. 

My core design goal was to show the main character's personality: a workaholic who completely neglects their personal well-being. 

To show their chaotic lifestyle, I filled the main desk with opened, empty food cans. The bed is crudely put together using two low wooden shelves pushed together, with a pile of finished soda cans scattered right next to it. 

For the vault, my main idea is that the player goes underwater every day to collect 20th-century texts, books, and movie files. It is like a seed vault for human culture. 

By using the real Svalbard Global Seed Vault's shape with unique vermilion red and dark green used on real buildings in Svalbard.

When testing this in our lighting, I found that the light looks very clear on the vermilion red. This strong color acts as a great visual guide to attract the player's attention and show them where to go.