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Binary Standoff

Open Space Exploration | Landmarks | Natural Guidance 

| Environment Puzzle | Combat

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Level Summary

The Heart of Stonevale is a single-player level built for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim that centers on Landmark-driven level design. The project explores how the “Denial and Reward” principle can sustain the appeal of visible landmarks and strengthen player motivation. By placing pre-arrival obstacles before landmarks and synchronizing progression-based rewards with visual guidance, the level creates a recurring attraction loop that naturally directs players forward.​

35+ minutes of gameplay

1 exterior space

2 interior space

8+ major combat encounters

4 enemy types + Boss fight

Semi-open map (Linear main flow & Exploration & Navigation Space)

Thesis "Best Practices of Landmark in Level Design: Maintaining Player Motivation Using Denial and Reward" has been posted to

Design Goals

Design Goals

Active Wayfinding

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Landmarks Hierarchy

Global landmark represents the ultimate goal is visible from most areas.
Regional landmarks represent sub-goals.
Local décor landmarks Smaller-scale environmental cues aid micro-navigation.

Map Overview

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Exterior

The level's overall flow follows an S-shaped progression rising from bottom to top, divided by natural boundaries such as mountain ridges, rivers, cliffs, and ruins into six regions, each anchored by a single distinctive landmark. ​

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Purple areas represents 2 indoor space.​​

Global Landmarks 6 and Regional Landmarks 1-5

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Interior 1

How to place landmarks in indoor spaces?


1. Matching the relative positions of starting point and exit with the outdoor direction, to keep the player's sense of orientation continuous.


2. Indoor maps have large open areas with verticality to give the player a clear view across the whole room.


3. I placed a Regional Landmark 2 statue at the center to act as a navigation anchor. 

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Interior 2

Regional Landmark 5 waterfall is in Cave Interior 2, and is visible from both outdoor and indoor to make sure players build a spatial connection between indoor and outdoor.

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Landmarks

Partition the map into zones by gameplay objectives, ensuring the guiding landmarks for each zone are visible within that zone.

1. Use only one dominant Global landmark 

2. Use scale differences to tier the landmark hierarchy.

3. Assign each zone a distinct regional landmark and functional/aesthetic theme, giving it a unique identity that supports quick recognition, spatial memory, and navigation.

Postmortem

What Went Well?

1. The three-tiered landmark hierarchy naturally draws players in and cultivates the habit of reorienting themselves using landmarks when lost.

2. Rewards are proportional to the challenges players overcome, increasing their anticipation of progress.

3. A consistent warm-gold color language across all landmark tiers helped players read the navigation hierarchy quickly.

What Went Wrong?

1. Landmark dominance isn't purely about scale. In the Cave, the smaller Golden Statue outperformed the larger Waterfall as the primary anchor

2. Landmark importance and memorability didn't align: players remembered regional landmarks more vividly than the Tower, despite the Tower being the most critical goal by design.

3. Denials that were too easy to spot (the Cave's blockage) gave players less sense of discovery than the Dungeon's misleading false path, which made solving it more satisfying.

What I Learned?

1. If a landmark can be more harmoniously integrated into the narrative, it might create a more unforgettable experience for players.

2. Denial design should leave safe room for the player to attempt and fail, rather than optimizing purely for fast visual recognition. a wrong turn can deepen a player's understanding of the space.

3. Spatial centrality and color contrast may matter more than raw scale in determining what players perceive as a dominant landmark.

4. Layout iteration in interconnected or open spaces takes disproportionately more time than in linear corridors.

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