---
title: "A Long Way Down"
description: "A short, atmospheric linear adventure created for my FdA Games and Interactive Design degree."
date: 2023-05-11
featured: true
image: { url: "alwd-img1.jpg", alt: "A Long Way Down Intro Showcase" }
tags: ["unreal engine", "blender", "inkscape"]
categories: ["education"]
extraAuthors: [{ name: "Sam Griffiths", url: "https://samgriffiths.dev" }]
---

import Gallery from "@components/Gallery.astro";

import image1 from "alwd-img1.jpg";
import image2 from "alwd-img2.jpg";
import image3 from "alwd-img3.jpg";
import image4 from "alwd-img4.jpg";
import image5 from "alwd-img5.jpg";
import image6 from "alwd-img6.jpg";
import image7 from "29ff3-alwd-introarea-24042023.jpg";
import image8 from "Screenshot_20230402_222043.jpg";
import image9 from "Screenshot from 2023-03-07 15-30-43.jpg";
import image10 from "Screenshot from 2023-03-01 20-02-00.jpg";

import alongwaydown_demo_walkthrough from "alongwaydown-demo-walkthrough.webm";

A Long Way Down is a short, atmospheric linear adventure created alongside my friend Sam as a project for our FdA Games and Interactive Design degree. My role was art direction including the lighting, level design, and majority of asset creation for the project. This is the follow up project to our previous work: [Nightmare](#nightmare), and was made to be an evolutionary improvement of it. Currently the [demo](https://samandtroy.itch.io/alongwaydown) is available to download and play on Itch.io.

<video preload="metadata" poster={image1.src} controls>
  <source src={alongwaydown_demo_walkthrough} type="video/webm" />
</video>

<Gallery
  items={[
    { src: image1, alt: "A Long Way Down Intro Showcase" },
    { src: image2, alt: "A Long Way Down Forest Showcase" },
    { src: image3, alt: "A Long Way Down Tree Bridge Showcase" },
    { src: image4, alt: "A Long Way Down Swamp Showcase" },
    { src: image5, alt: "A Long Way Down Final Climb" },
    { src: image6, alt: "A Long Way Down Cliff Jump" },
    { src: image7, alt: "Alternate night lighting idea" },
    { src: image8, alt: "Old colour grade on forest section" },
    { src: image9, alt: "Early environment stage" },
    { src: image10, alt: "Initial style experiments" },
  ]}
/>

## Nightmare

import image11 from "troy-lusty-nightmare.avif";
import image12 from "troy-lusty-nightmare-frame-1182.avif";
import image13 from "troy-lusty-highresscreenshot00000.jpg";
import image14 from "troy-lusty-untitled.jpg";

import nightmare from "nightmare.webm";

This is the environment I created in collaboration with Sam Griffiths for our Unit 8 - Developing a Creative Media Production Project - Final Major Project which concluded 2021-04-21. I was in charge of the art side of the project including asset production, composition, and lighting. Additionally, I created this short cinematic in Unreal Engine's cinematic level sequencer by keyframing the transform values and focus distance of a camera.

<video preload="metadata" muted controls>
  <source src={nightmare} type="video/webm" />
</video>

<Gallery
  items={[
    { src: image11, alt: "Frame 0600" },
    { src: image12, alt: "Frame 1182" },
    { src: image13, alt: "Development image 1" },
    { src: image14, alt: "Development image 2" },
  ]}
/>