You wake alone in an isolated cabin with no memory of arriving. A journal counts thirty-nine days. A note warns you away from the basement. Something wants you to stay — and something else wants you to leave.
Horror Cabin is a three-floor psychological horror exploration level built solo in Unreal Engine 5. The player pieces together what happened to the cabin's occupants through environmental clues, lore items, and a locked basement that only opens once they've earned the truth. Every prop in the space — down to the furniture — is modeled by hand to ground the horror in a believable, lived-in home.
The original paper map I sketched out for the cabin's three floors — room sequencing, interactable placement, and the locked basement gate that pays off the full exploration loop.
With no enemies or combat systems, tension has to come entirely from pacing, space, and light. I sequenced the three floors so each one raises the stakes — a lived-in ground floor, a more disturbed second floor, and a basement that's deliberately withheld until the player has earned the key. The locked door itself became a pacing tool, not just an obstacle: its placement on the level map (above) is the hinge the whole loop pays off on.
Every piece of backstory had to live in an object. A family portrait with the faces scratched out. A journal counting days in captivity. A note warning the player away from the one room they'll eventually have to enter. I designed each interactable to raise a question the next room would partially answer, so exploration itself became the narrative delivery system.
Horror lands harder in a space that feels real first. Rather than relying on asset packs, I'm modeling the cabin's furniture myself in Blender — a dimensions-first workflow with strict scale and export discipline — so every couch, table, and cabinet reads as an object that belongs in this specific home, not a generic prop dropped into a level. Full set shown in the Props gallery.
The full gameplay loop is playable today: the key-find, lore-item, and locked-basement sequence all function end to end, and I've captured a complete playthrough. I'm currently in Blender modeling the remaining custom furniture — couch, dining set, coffee table, kitchen cabinetry, mini fridge, and a handful of smaller pieces — before bringing everything into UE5 for final dressing.
Goal: a fully dressed, lit, and polished three-floor level by the end of July 2026 — the flagship piece proving Level Design, Level Art, and Environment Art in one build.
A sample of the furniture modeled from scratch in Blender for this level. Full set with individual photos in the Props gallery →
