Subkronica is a sandbox. Some might call it a walking simulator, but personally, I take that as a derogatory term. I’d much rather it be an “exploration game”. Subkronica is about exploration. It aims to capture my childhood experience of wandering into strange, liminal spaces where I didn’t quite belong. These forgotten corners of the universe held a mysterious allure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cqo8d-22hw
In Subkronica, you explore a small-scale city, including sewage systems, the electric plant that powers the entire city, high-rise apartment complexes, and secret underground train stations. There are no destined paths in this game; you can try to beat it, reach one of several endings, or simply walk around and be awed by the brutalist jungle you’re trapped in. Gargantuan, man-made concrete structures where every room can be entered. But it's lifeless, a cruel, long-dead world that is only a shell of itself. The enormity of the environment makes you feel how small you are. You can jump onto a balcony, fall onto another building’s rooftop, or go to every floor via a fully working elevator. You can go anywhere; the game doesn’t fake its space.
At the beginning of my senior year, I gave myself a challenge: I was going to make this game in Unreal Engine 5, using C++. I had very limited experience with Unreal Engine before, and I didn’t know C++. I knew that Unreal’s visual programming language, Blueprint, would be much easier to learn than C++, but I believed that a visual coding system exclusive to one game engine is a much less transferable skill than a language such as C++ that is universally used.
Therefore, a large part of my research involved learning to use Unreal Engine 5 and C++. I focused on getting the basics down so my ignorance wouldn’t be a burden to the game’s development. The production of Subkronica was a thorough learning process itself. But before I even started, I devoted a lot of time to learning the C++ language and following UE5 C++ projects online to get acquainted with the Unreal library and all the tools UE5 has to offer. This went on simultaneously as I was making my preliminary prototypes using my patchy, pieced-together knowledge of Unreal Blueprint.
https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdfCNB-QShXCIL01HOvvZjpeg9dqYnNoKYTIiRPPg3FNYxtEOBa_jWiKYI_vXyaRlvA8b1XyogZYOVIQZA0Iu_8nUWJs1AGVBrBQ3trg-uE9I2edxyMYXxBZEPH4unY2iT96cXtH3eeDKZQYE9Y4nBYectr?key=AjWRDxrad4tkiat91IfMiQ
https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXd7M8QujjomGiGw-Q_bmAnFY7tVq216GuzfDzOorRLFuF7jiMkuPwaVnE01V3_zsSEkniO5ijbybT6AA7X6L1e5d8XGT53KyKRmFriyAQ5OLQ3nj5CGz5k_O7nm2T50k-VDfi_dLVTR-gbq-gqnqP6mxMxg?key=AjWRDxrad4tkiat91IfMiQ
In retrospect, doing these practice projects took a lot of time, time that could have been spent on the game itself. However, I really lacked confidence when it came to the Unreal Engine, and I think this would have persisted if it weren’t for this process. The most important outcome of these practices was getting myself familiar with the Unreal and C++ workflow so that I’d be equipped with the basic knowledge and know where to look for things for subsequent
I set out to design a vast world, with the goal of having every space openable. I wanted to make it into an urban maze.
The central element to having this sandbox feel complex is an underground system. Sewage tunnels, enterable from the ground level, and consists of several rooms/spaces that can be explored or interacted with.
https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcWnKUGRJuORlOW4RpL0TtuFpvzjNWLXUV341CSG1w9TEzNbVN7eWs70ThLzvZa5XhpeC7m_fiwl3lPhOAltJyfQbcPpCplj1JEufzTyzweCTapj_dMxncqw9DDZbfvqxgkAYICZ-41C7qldYmi4Qc_sUAp?key=AjWRDxrad4tkiat91IfMiQ
Sewage Tunnels in detail
https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeBFKpwCR7v77-zbTIRQ9-oPc0Cu_EcYC34FpPEnUua5OqoTYkjBjTzHRuz-_aHUCpJ1Nru1BDdcga36A1WHLwY2inMkMlSUtyQ-HuOgOq9DIUtY43E4oT3ds-l3KJsiknVkXfDX7qmgVyOSvHnFgh-XG6G?key=AjWRDxrad4tkiat91IfMiQ
https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcBTUEQqg0LX_SMg4-tGIxYAQcHXu-fwbYr8H-QWmCZjhVpeQADMm1oMCiFAKAjS5tx5o4zYnXrJlwNObwjAozII97upfcqN2dTYdtbmc6l85ezbetDw6rBfYhuE6ErSH6gLfD7RcVpXYLimTnlFqZe5cOz?key=AjWRDxrad4tkiat91IfMiQ
Backroom-like Spaces & Train Station
https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXcKHGlbPaiGTfFnH0TCMgyz6FJYHE4py8zX6SzuMArEtMzj1926ZMeF1usoZumSFIcwfPfKuB7cY3wpM7SSlNl3LjkEpcaIgOvpV22Bu9jrDIrAhvGOJy3Ytn8EREENiWjuJGMeJZvyQN-qwm6QFhaeunYA?key=AjWRDxrad4tkiat91IfMiQ
https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXdtO_hgZmsLDXVbdBZkodrN0wV6QoqyInLcF_DHhB865ScYkQqOWIshbgbzUC8MEyImiG1GH9ew2wlPYUWJ1QOmrzPg-pam2okec-I8oY-CDtiQCqAtVTK-8Idm9VKUvq-oo9Jo3xddlVHIOsNTGU2Dub-q?key=AjWRDxrad4tkiat91IfMiQ
On the ground level, there is a mini city consisting of several buildings.
https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXd3NOohlj9eVSqMfVwEDyXNgXdi2AKYwz49Cu4SjEzbBlIgPI7DpZ6PGdncAMpGCZe3Ki4XNCQFisa-IghJfTOs-fC1r48uZSArgwVn2F4VQ3fGftITi--zeQDwptAxfhsIHxKspv1JxcciMNKs6T6q6RY?key=AjWRDxrad4tkiat91IfMiQ
What surrounds the city is a silo-shaped wall.
https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXc0atNyOSJw1FImhSL7FKNa9VzIdra3bPiVYfCqgDc-iA2la9j3eMPUuVGtpMRuy-IlBh6luNmN_tHnx5AW81VS-_22J74WB6CbYu2-dTOtoo-J_cESAHsNVd-FXz_h4oqr-TXIst2GS8b1LGjcOQfyRQSu?key=AjWRDxrad4tkiat91IfMiQ