Abtos Covert is a survival horror game where you play a soldier keeping guard at a remote outpost deep in the woods. Alone in a hostile environment, you must stay alert, manage limited resources, and survive whatever is watching from the darkness.
The project began as a three-person student game and evolved into a three-year development journey with a small team and a publisher. Over time, the scope grew from a confined map into a more open, explorable setting designed to build tension through pacing, sightlines, and atmosphere.
I played a key role across production, stepping into a lead responsibility to keep development moving and align the team. My focus was on game design and level design shaping the player experience, guiding progression, and supporting the overall feel of the outpost and its surrounding forest.
Core Gameplay
This section is about the commercial full release version of Abtos Covert, the version we developed for almost 3 years and shipped.
The core idea started from something very simple:
Me and my friends wanted to make a survival game. Five Nights at Freddy’s came up early, and because we are Greek, we wanted to adapt that “survive the night” tension into a Greek setting.
The strongest theme was the military outpost. Military service is mandatory in Greece, and there are many stories, myths, and “weird experiences” people talk about. We built the fantasy around that: you are patrolling an outpost alone at night, and the myths become real.
From there, we expanded the concept using inspiration from games like Alien: Isolation and Outlast, and we did research into Greek folklore, history, and geography to ground the world and the threats.
On the gameplay side, the player’s job is to survive the night by managing limited tools, reading the outpost, and reacting to danger. The game mixes patrol, surveillance, and defensive decisions, with threats that pressure the player into moving and taking risks.
Level Design
•Responsible for the outpost layout and level flow, planning how the player moves through the space under pressure.•Placed and balanced the core mechanics across the map so they are reachable when needed, without making the layout feel too convenient or artificial.•Designed the interior floors and exterior routes to support readability, pacing, and tension, shaping sightlines and entry points to keep the player vulnerable but in control.
Ground Floor Map
The outpost is semi-fictional, it needs to feel believable as a real place, but also function as a tight gameplay hub. The biggest challenge was placing the CCTV (the player’s main station) so it wasn’t overpowered, while still keeping response times fair across all core interactions.
I designed the building as a 3-floor hub, with the CCTV positioned close to the exit for outdoor responses, but also within similar travel time to the important indoor systems.One small but important detail was keeping useful actions within the same “mental space”: the player can quickly check CCTV and then turn to confirm nearby systems (like the sensor panel) without wasting time or losing flow.The goal was to save seconds in a way that feels natural, not gamey.
Upper Floor Map
Upstairs needed clarity and structure. If the layout is messy, the player loses time and the fear becomes frustration. But if everything is too close and convenient, it breaks immersion and makes the outpost feel like a “game arena.”
I split the upper floor into clear directions (N/S/E/W) and kept important points easy to remember. I placed key interactions so travel times are consistent and readable, and kept the vent close to the stairs to reduce pointless backtracking.The floor is efficient, but not “perfect”, the player still has to commit and move, which keeps tension.
Basement Map
The basement stayed almost the same as the original student prototype. It already worked as a strong “risk space,” so I didn’t want to redesign it just for the sake of change.
The main challenge was the mechanism placement and how far the basement should be from safety. If it was too deep or too far, it would feel like a chore. But if everything was too close to the stairs, it would lose tension.
I moved the lever for the locking mechanism closer to the stairs so the player doesn’t waste time reaching it, but I placed it so the player still has to step deeper into the basement to interact and take a peek inside. That small commitment is important, it turns the basement into a deliberate choice, not a free action.
For the locker, I kept the same philosophy as the other safe spots: it’s placed deeper in the room. From inside the locker area you get a strong view angle back toward the stairs, which creates a really nice “impact” moment, you feel exposed, but you can also read the space and see what’s coming.
Exterior / Enemy Map
The basement is risk. It’s a place the player doesn’t want to be in for long, but still needs a clear purpose. The challenge was making it feel like a real utility space while supporting the loop (reward vs danger).
I used the basement for high-value interactions (like the lever / vents / locker) and designed it as a short, direct route from the stairs. This keeps it readable under pressure while still feeling like a deliberate choice to go down there.
Student Project → Commercial Project
The Student Version
Before Abtos Covert became a commercial project, it started as a 2-month student game during my Games Programming education. It’s a fun fact, but it matters because this is where the core idea and the first playable version came from.
We were a team of three. Together we wrote the first GDD, and we focused on one goal: deliver a complete game within the deadline. This was also my first full game project where I owned a major area of responsibility.
I fully designed the level layout and flow, and worked with my teammates to make sure the space supported the gameplay loop and progression. Even though it was a small student scope, we shipped a complete playable experience.
This is where you add what you told me (Unity/CSG/scale + the 3-night design + the “girl” event), and it’ll feel natural after the screenshot.
Technically, the student version was built in Unity, and it was where I learned practical environment workflow for the first time, blocking out spaces with Realtime CSG, importing assets, and understanding scale through iteration (including the classic early mistakes like “asset flipping” and inconsistent proportions).
Design-wise, the game was much more contained than the commercial version. It was structured around three nights, and the player stayed mostly inside the outpost. Outside, there were only three spotlight gates, which created three clear defensive points to manage.One of the memorable parts was a random event with a little girl:
She could trigger a song, shut the lights off, and force the player to reach the generator and restore power before the song ended.
Technically, the student version was built in Unity, and it was where I learned practical environment workflow for the first time, blocking out spaces with Realtime CSG, importing assets, and understanding scale through iteration (including the classic early mistakes like “asset flipping” and inconsistent proportions).
Design-wise, the game was much more contained than the commercial version. It was structured around three nights, and the player stayed mostly inside the outpost. Outside, there were only three spotlight gates, which created three clear defensive points to manage.One of the memorable parts was a random event with a little girl:
She could trigger a song, shut the lights off, and force the player to reach the generator and restore power before the song ended.
The student version already had the same DNA as the commercial game: the outpost fantasy, the tension loop, and systems like CCTV cameras. We even had a small tutorial moment with my colleague doing voice acting, which gave the experience some personality early on.The big difference was scope. The world was much smaller and more contained, and looking back I actually find that scale charming, it made the game feel focused and “handmade.” This early version became the base that later grew into the full commercial project.
Takeaways
I designed all of Glitsa’s levels with a focus on fast-paced, readable, and rewarding progression. Each stage was planned from blockout to final gameplay layout, balancing speed and control, inspired by Doom, Dusk, and boomer shooter classics.