(ship simulation game, Unreal Engine 5, astragon Development, since 2023)
Still in production at astragon Development, Seafarer: The Ship Sim is a job simulator that enables the players to operate various types of boats and ships to complete jobs/missions in harbours and on the open sea.
I joined the project in July 2023 during pre-production as Junior Level Designer and was promoted to Regular after two years. The game was launched in early access on October 7th, 2025.
During preproduction, I was involved in the planning of the mission system and designed and wrote the first missions on paper in dependence of the planned gameplays and features. I also worked closely with Programming during the production of our in-house mission editor. In addition, I got to design some gameplay systems (e.g. an early version of the crew management), was involved in the world design (planning of harbours, regions & the world map in general) and delivered layout sketches that were used in the 3D production of the ships.
Later on, my main task was the design & implementation (and sometimes writing) of missions using our in-house mission editor. This involved generic missions, with parametric data sets to convey the feeling of maritime jobs, that kept their core gameplay while never being the same. I was responsible for designing and implementing a story campaign in close collaboration with all departments. This included a rewrite during the early access phase.
My responsibilities:
Mission Design
- Designing, writing & implementing unique and generic missions within the simulation context
- Designed & implemented five out of six missions of the story campaign
- Designed & implemented the tutorial mission
Level Design
- Involved in the planning & design of the world map and many locations
- Prototyping grey box levels for harbours to provide the optimal space for different gameplays
- Implemented level changes if required for a mission, be it on the ships or on the sea
Software:
- Unreal Engine 5
- Confluence (design & documentation)
- Jira
- Git
The official project page can be found here.