Tail Cave
After going on vacation in both Hawaii and the Yucatan, I had the idea to remake the exterior of the Tail Cave dungeon from The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening as a Mayan ruin in a tropical island cove. Link's Awakening has been one of my favorite games ever since I was a kid so this project had a lot of nostalgic value for me. It was also a chance for me to a full environment project to my portfolio. I made everything in the scene excluding the water shader for which I used the Unreal Water Plugin.
The main shot I worked from. It represented the view the player would see when entering the area.
Fly through. I wanted the space to feel like it was part of a game play area. Like you could fight some enemies in the space.
I wanted the space to feel similar to the source material which had an open area on the left. I decided to add a waterfall and another ruin to make it feel less empty and tie in to my "Mayan ruin in a tropical island cove" theme
A Secret Seashell!
Walls and pillars made with my trim sheet.
Waterfall closeup
I made a model for the keyhole as it was prominent in the source game.
Progress gif. The idea to have a Mayan archway came a little later, originally I was going to have just a natural cave but I felt it was strange to have Mayan statues outside of a plain cave, so I added the archway to tie it together thematically.
Comparison to both the Gameboy and Switch versions of the level. How it actually looked vs how it felt as a kid.
My PureRef board. I used a lot of reference photos that I took while on vacation in both Hawaii and the Yucatan.
All of the props I made for the project. Part of my goal with this project was to make as few assets as possible as I had limited time to work.