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Overview
The Cymathoa Dungeon was one of the most creatively fulfilling areas I worked on in Ark: Aquatica. I was responsible for both the dungeon’s design and set dressing, taking full ownership from the early stages all the way through polish. This location was meant to feel tense, eerie, and otherworldly. It's an ancient, parasite-infested space where the environment itself feels alive and threatening. Designing this dungeon gave me the opportunity to lean into Ark’s darker tone and craft a tightly-paced, atmospheric space built around player tension, traversal, and environmental storytelling.

My Design Process

Starting with a basic footprint, I established the dungeon’s structure with player flow at the forefront. The layout was designed to encourage deliberate pacing, with tight corridors giving way to larger parasite chambers, vertical traversal challenges, and hidden corners that reward exploration.

Combat scenarios were staged to play with line-of-sight and claustrophobia, creating moments where players would have to make fast decisions in high-pressure situations. I also placed creature spawns in a way that reinforced the dungeon’s parasitic infestation theme—catching players off guard in areas that felt deceptively quiet.

As we moved into final polish, I continued iterating based on internal playtest feedback. I refined enemy placement, adjusted lighting for better visibility without sacrificing tone, and cleaned up navigation issues related to terrain collision and AI pathing.

The Cymathoa Dungeon was a chance for me to own a space from top to bottom, fully. It allowed me to blend narrative, tension, and gameplay into a cohesive, unsettling experience. I’m incredibly proud of how it turned out. It’s a biome that rewards cautious exploration, punishes recklessness, and immerses players in a world that’s decaying from the inside out. Designing this dungeon was one of the highlights of my time on Ark: Aquatica, and I’m excited for players to uncover its secrets for themselves.