An Alan Wake 2-Inspired Level: The Venison Slaughterhouse

This case was really a writing exercise. Before Alan Wake 2 came out, a level designer I knew made a small paper design. While we were chatting in a group, I suddenly wanted to build a complete quest flow around his layout. With the game’s release approaching, and IGN’s demonstration giving me the impression that this installment had added quite a few things, I took his paper layout and worked it into a linear sequence.

I later used this sequence as part of a written assignment when interviewing for a quest designer position on another project. The screenshots below are excerpts from that presentation.

Designing a quest flow

With Alan Wake 2 about to launch, a level designer friend had built a demo map layout around its gameplay. He wanted a quest flow to use inside the level, so I designed one for that layout. Since it also fit the requirements of the test assignment, I included it in my answer.

First, a quick introduction to the gameplay and the purpose of this quest design:

• A third-person shooter.
• During the quest, the player can enter a “mental space” and combine collected evidence to select a story branch, then enter that branch’s sequence.
• The branches are different ways of staging the quest within the same location. The physical scene itself stays fixed.
• The demo takes place in a venison slaughterhouse outside Night Springs, controlled by the Hiss faction.
• This is a relatively small side quest about investigating an area, rather than a main quest. The target playtime is around 30–40 minutes.

Area overview

An old venison slaughterhouse that appears to have been abandoned. The interiors take their cue from an aging, independently owned slaughterhouse in a small American town.

Before it closed, it handled a substantial volume of livestock. To keep the operation running, the owner divided it into three main areas: offices, processing, and shipping.

The quest proceeds in three stages, with scripted scenes between them. The player’s objective is to investigate the slaughterhouse and kill the cultist wearing a deer head.

Office Area A

An old factory office, with plenty of timber construction, damaged walls, and exposed wooden framing.

Office Area B

Mostly corridors and break rooms, with some meeting rooms. The owner deliberately separated the office and workshop areas. Area B originally provided somewhere for drivers to rest and business partners to meet. It is now covered in cult symbols and slogans.

Processing floor

To enter the processing floor or shipping center, the player must pass through a decontamination corridor. The floor is very clean, and the slaughter machinery is still quietly running. Deer heads, antlers, and slaughtering tools are piled in the corners. Photographs on the walls show the workers who once worked on this production line together at the slaughterhouse.

Shipping area

A large looped conveyor connects the workshop to the shipping area. Several abandoned refrigerated trucks stand nearby. This is one of the few places in the processing complex with a view outside.

Map labels: Office Area A; drivers’ rest area; decontamination corridor; shipping area; front entrance; processing floor; StartPoint; SavePoint.

Reception: selecting a route

The player-controlled investigator enters through the lobby. They first see the slaughterhouse logo and reception desk, then a camera cue directs their attention toward the SavePoint area. Entering it takes them to the evidence board, where previously collected clues can be combined into two quest routes, A and B.

Route A: the town’s butcher has said that the slaughterhouse stopped operating some time ago. Its owner has disappeared, but the machinery still starts up every night and makes a racket.

Route B: according to a driver from the slaughterhouse’s contracted trucking company, the owner bought a shipment of deer from a strange supplier named O. J. Smith. After that, the slaughterhouse began receiving peculiar death threats. The owner shut the place down, and nobody in town has seen him since.

The map shows the route from the entrance through reception to the SavePoint, then the split toward A or B.

Route A: drivers’ rest area

Sequence: the player heads toward the offices to investigate why the slaughterhouse closed. On entering, they discover that the drivers’ rest area has been occupied by dark puppets of the Hiss.

Atmosphere: the rest area resembles a truck-stop diner or bar. A television loops recordings, reinforcing the eerie atmosphere and repeating pieces of worldbuilding.

Evidence: the player can collect a driver’s log describing problems with a shipment of deer numbered 0693. They had oddly shaped antlers and swollen bellies; some had scorched fur, and others had clotted blood on them. This evidence will be used in later quests.

Map labels: entry point; meeting room; dining area; recreation area; long corridor. The indicated route enters from the right and continues through the rest area toward the corridor.

Route A: Office Area A

Sequence: the player continues exploring, enters the long corridor, and catches sight of a figure moving through Office Area A.

Staging: cult symbols and warning slogans suddenly appear in the corridor, prompting the player to sneak forward. Inside the office is an elite enemy: a hulking figure wearing a skeletal deer head.

Combat: the player must evade it while searching the room for a special weapon. After finding a flare gun, they attack the deer-headed enemy. A few rounds of attacks lead into a scripted scene.

Staging: the creature screams. The room’s lights all come on, stripping away the darkness shielding it. It crashes through a window and escapes. A man’s voice comes over the slaughterhouse’s PA system, directing the player to the shipping area.

The map marks a SavePoint within the office complex and its connection to the long corridor.

Route A: shipping area

Route: the player follows the directions through the decontamination corridor and enters the shipping area, triggering a scripted scene.

Staging: a truck is parked at the shipping entrance. A driver emerges from a small room carrying a shotgun and tells the player that the deer-headed creature has entered the workshop. He received a call from the owner asking him to return to work, and came to find him. The investigator says that they did not see the owner in the offices. Both turn their attention to the processing floor.

Evidence: the player can find Twisted Antlers and Shipping Manifest No. 0693. The manifest’s contents have been blacked out, but the origin and sender details identify the supplier as O. J. Smith. These clues will be used in later quests.

The map marks the truck’s position on the right side of the shipping area, with a SavePoint in the small room above.

Route A: slaughter floor

Staging: on entering the slaughter floor, the player sees the lights flickering and the deer-headed creature dismembering a body. The truck driver draws a flare gun from his belt and fires. The boss fight begins.

Combat: the player must dodge attacks while switching on power sources around the floor, then shoot the creature while the room is lit. After two rounds, the creature wounds the driver and drags him into the waste-processing area.

Second phase: the player follows into the waste-processing area and defeats the creature using shotgun and flare-gun ammunition scattered around the scene. The sequence ends when it is killed.

Evidence: after the fight, the player obtains a Damaged Phone and a Driver’s License. These will be used in later quests.

Map labels: decontamination area; observation room; conveyor corridor, sloping downward; slaughter floor; conveyor passage; staff break room; waste-processing area.

Route B: slaughter floor

Objective: find the slaughterhouse owner.

Staging: the player enters the decontamination area. Disinfectant begins spraying, the barrier door at the far end flickers, and a figure appears in the observation room. Once the cleaning cycle ends, the player enters that room.

Exploration: a photograph on the observation-room wall shows the owner with the slaughterhouse staff. Examining it reveals that several people have been scribbled out. The photograph can be collected as evidence.

On the slaughter floor, the player finds the owner’s work log, recording strange behavior in the recently delivered deer. This is another piece of evidence.

Route B: shipping area

Staging: the player follows the direction of the conveyor into the shipping area. A gunshot comes from a small room, followed by flickering lights. The player follows the sound inside and finds that a man dressed as a truck driver has just killed himself.

Quest flow: the game directs the player to investigate the room. Searching the body yields a Driver’s License and a Phone.

Staging: the phone beside the body rings. When the player answers, a man named O. J. Smith is trying to warn the owner to stay away from the shipment: something is wrong with it. On learning that the owner is dead, Smith says he is driving to the slaughterhouse. He warns that a deer-headed butcher may be roaming inside, and that strong light is needed to kill it. His plan is to smash through the rest-area entrance with his truck and use its headlights against the butcher.

The map marks the dead man’s position in the room containing the SavePoint, and the truck parking area to the right.

Route B: Office Area B

Quest flow: following the information from the call, the player crosses the decontamination area, reaches the offices, and finds the deer-headed butcher.

Combat: the player must sneak around the office looking for flare-gun ammunition, then use the gun to weaken the butcher. After one round of combat, it runs down the corridor toward the drivers’ rest area.

Route B: drivers’ rest area

Combat: the player enters the rest area, where the power has been cut. They must search for flares and attack the creature, trying to bring it down.

Staging: after two rounds of attacks, a truck crashes through the wall beside the rest room. O. J. Smith switches on its high beams, climbs out with a shotgun, and joins the fight. He and the player defeat the creature together, completing the sequence.

The map shows the rest-area rooms—meeting room, dining area, recreation area—and the long corridor connecting them to the offices.

Design goals and reasoning

Area exploration and low-intensity combat → recognizing an environmental threat and taking on the challenge → a change in the situation → an escalating final combat sequence.

This sequence is intended as the first half of the investigation into the deer-head cult, lasting around 30–40 minutes. Its pacing therefore follows a fairly conventional progression: explore → recognize a threat and attempt to confront it → encounter a change and explore for more information → escalate into combat. The central aim is to match Alan Wake 2‘s atmosphere.

Within a larger quest plan, it would fit a relatively low-intensity investigation in the early-to-middle part of the game. Something like this: the player has fought Hiss enemies in the prologue, then learns that they have been active in Night Springs. On reaching the town, they hear the local rumors about the eerie slaughterhouse and go to investigate.

The aim is to give the player a rough expectation of how later encounters with the Hiss, including more complex area investigations, will unfold. The sequence also includes scripted and experiential passages to convey the unsettling atmosphere of the Hiss and Night Springs’ strange stories, giving the player a sense of the game’s overall mood.