Trailmakers: Level Design Across 5 Major Updates
Role: Level Designer | Studio: Flashbulb Games | Engine: Unity
🔍 Project Overview
Trailmakers is a creative sandbox game where players build custom vehicles to explore a physics-based world filled with environmental challenges, races, combat encouters and puzzles. As a Level Designer, I was responsible for crafting dynamic, traversal-rich environments, creating races and puzzles that encourage experimentation, problem-solving, and creativity.
I worked closely with design, art, and programer teams to develop levels that blend open-ended exploration with problem solving gameplay. My design approach focused on sculpting terrain that meaningfully interacts with multiple types of player-built vehicles, supports varied gamemode types and naturally introduced new mechanics through world layout and obstacle design.
🔍 My history on Trailmakers
I joined the Trailmaker team around the 31st of October, 2023, as an assistant level designer on the 1.7 SpaceBound update and ended my time on the project with the 2.0 Pioneers update as the main level designer for the game's largest open-world map.
 2.0 Pioneers2.0 Massive open world map |  1.9.5: PVP mapLarge Archepelego, setup and layout. |  1.9 F1 Race trackCommunity beloved race track |
|---|---|---|
 1.8, Seasonal events and secret new islandSeasonal events, small island, thinking outside the box, |  1.7 space terrainAsteroids, set dressing and bug fixing. |
Projects
2.0: Pioneers- Open World design and implementation
Overview
I worked as the main level designer on Trailmakers’ largest open-world campaign, Pioneers. A narrative driven campaign inspired by survival and MMO gameplay.
It introduced land, sea, and air traversal in a linear quest line, using an open sandbox environment, designed to onboard new players to the game through a familiar medium.
Project/Design Goals
The goal of the project was to help new players ease into Trailmakers by slowly introducing its complex features through a structured and familiar MMO medium. The hope was to make the initial experience more engaging for new players and eventually turn them into longterm players.
I was responsible for designing a large open world that supported this direction. I worked closely alongside our mission designers and the art team to create a landscape filled with mission, points of interest and distinct areas that would encourage our players to explore, giving them a reason to keep coming back.
My Contributions
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Level Design & Puzzle Design for both the Tutorial level and the open world campaign map. Here I owned implementation from the concept to the final version.
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Sculpted the terrain using Blender and designed the layout of each sub biome to ensure they feelt unique. A player should always know where they are, even when traversing areas that share similar terrain textures and without having to use the minimap.
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Designed and implemented missions that challenged the player to use the vehicle builder creatively. Including puzzle based objectives that required players to craft specialized vehicles and approach traversal and problem-solving in non-linear ways.
Game Design Challenges - Designing with constraints
Overview
I designed a puzzle-focused side mission chain centered around transporting a block of Obsidian — a unique material that introduced one meaningful constraint
It was Non-magnetic, meaning players couldn’t use the common Tractor Beam block to lift or carry it
This meant the typical “slap on a Tractor Beam block and go” strategy no longer worked.
To complete the missions, our players had to engineer entirely new solutions — using mechanical arms, cages, hinges, or clever wedges to lift and secure the object manually.
Gameplay from theYoutuber Scrapman playthrough of the update that introduced the puzzles I made.
19:33, etc
Design Intent
The goal of this mission chain wasn’t just to create a harder delivery quest, something we had done quite a lot of already, it was to break player assumptions and encourage out-of-the-box problem solving. By designing puzzles around this non-standard object, I pushed players deeper into the core building mechanics and rewarded experimentation over brute force.
While of course brute force will always be possible in some of the puzzles, it wasn' the right answers for all of them.
Outcome
While the response wasn't immedietly heard as these missions appeared at patch for 2.0, it seemed that i achived a design that was lacking in the launch updates, puzzles that forced the player to use their builder to build a solution, to think outside the box...
What was clear was that each community with crafted wildly different builds and approaches. For each one of the new missions. It validated the design choice to take away an expected tool (the magnet) in order to unlock deeper creativity and system mastery.
Example of Tractor Beam block working on a normal cargo
Example of the puzzle block not being attracted to the Tactor beam
Crane vehicle made to lift puzzle object
Drone vehicle made to lift puzzle object
Level Design Challenges - Sub Biomes
The Pioneers update introduced a massive open world that spanned several in-game kilometers. However, due to engine limitations and a relatively short render distance, players couldn’t see key landmarks from far away, which made it easy to get disoriented during exploration.
With such a large map and a limited asset pool, we faced a clear risk: if the environment within a biome looked too uniform, players could easily get lost without constantly checking the minimap. That would hurt immersion and exploration, two core pillars of the update.
To address this, I developed a solution we came to call Sub-Biomes.
Level Design Solution - Sub Biomes
The idea behind Sub-Biomes was simple: just as each major biome (like the Meadows) had its own personality — with distinct terrain textures, traversal challenges, foliage, and asset choices — the sub-biomes would act as variations or remixes of that core identity.
While each sub-biome still used the same general assets and terrain types, I designed them with a unique focus or flavor. One area might lean into mountainous terrain, another might emphasize beaches and lakes, while a third could focus on wide, open fields. This approach allowed us to stretch limited resources while still building a world that felt diverse and readable.
The goal was to ensure that when a player dropped into one of these areas, they could intuitively understand three things:
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They were in the Meadows biome.
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They were in a specific part of the Meadows, based on the sub-biome’s personality and traits.
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They could orient themselves within that sub-biome, thanks to a distinct landmark — something that stood out visually and encouraged exploration.
In the following example, I’ve selected three distinct areas that demonstrate this design in action.
The Wetlands
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Last area of the Meadows.
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Used a lot of mud and lakes instead of open grasslands
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Flatter less mountainous
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Used final boss of the area as a point of intrest
Post-Mortem: Pioneers Campaign
My takeaway from the Pioneers campaign is a mixed one. While there were moments I’m proud of, there are also key lessons I’ve learned through both the design process and player feedback.
Initially conceived as a new campaign for Trailmakers, Pioneers diverged from the core elements that made the original campaign so compelling — namely, creative problem solving and sandbox-style experimentation. Those qualities had been crucial in engaging our core player base, and their absence in Pioneers was felt.
Gameplay vs. Creative Freedom
From what I observed, while the new map looked visually interesting and offered exploration opportunities, the gameplay it supported didn’t align well with Trailmakers’ strengths. In most cases, there was little incentive for players to improve or modify their vehicles creatively. Only a few missions were designed in a way that actually required the player to use the builder to overcome a challenge. This limited the kind of emergent, vehicle-based problem-solving that defines the Trailmakers experience.
There was a sense of exploration in the world, but very little of to actually discover. The gameplay felt too much like a grind — and that grind actively worked against the player’s ability to be creative.
What I Would Do Differently?
If I had the chance to revisit the project — even with just the ability to change the maps design — I would approach several things differently:
1. Reduce the Size of the Ground Vehicle Zone
The Meadows area, designed for ground vehicles, was simply too large. Most vehicles the player used could only reach around 70 km/h at this point of the game, and traversing that pace felt slow and repetitive. I realized this too late in development. At the time, I was directed to maintain a specific landmass size, and I didn’t push back hard enough. In hindsight, I should have either advocated for faster vehicle speeds in that zone or made a stronger case for reducing the island’s scale.
2. Blend Gameplay Styles Earlier
Instead of gating the different vehicle types (ground, floating, flying) behind defeating bosses and linear progression, I would have preferred to let players unlock and experiment with all of them throughout one interconnected zone. This could’ve been done by placing the necessary blocks throughout the world (similar to how Stranded in space worked) — discovered through puzzles or missions. I understand the original concern: we wanted to prevent players from accessing late-game resources, bosses, side missions and more. But that led to a very rigid structure, which limited creativity.
A better solution might have involved just giving the player access to all types of blocks through exploration, finding what they want through puzzles — rather than strict mission progression walls.
Final Thoughts
Despite its flaws, Pioneers was an incredibly valuable project for me. It taught me how level design choices can directly support or limit a game’s core identity. It also reminded me of the importance of advocating for player experience — even when working within constraints. I’ll carry these lessons forward into every future project I work on.
1.9.5 Update: Pedal to the metal
Text
Was the main level designer for the project’s largest open world level in the game. Taking ownership and responsibility for the map’s state throughout production, and often taking responsibility to fix any issues that arose in late development.
Role and responsibilities
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Main level Designer for the updates large open world map
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Custodian of quality.
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Mission and puzzle design
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Enemy combat encounters and bases
Text
Briefly describe your degree and any other highlights about your studies you want to share. Be sure to include relevant skills you gained, accomplishments you achieved or milestones you reached during your education.
Post Mortem
1.9.0 Update: Pedal to the metal
Text
Was the main level designer for the project’s largest open world level in the game. Taking ownership and responsibility for the map’s state throughout production, and often taking responsibility to fix any issues that arose in late development.
Role and responsibilities
-
Main level Designer for the updates large open world map
-
Custodian of quality.
-
Mission and puzzle design
-
Enemy combat encounters and bases
Text
Briefly describe your degree and any other highlights about your studies you want to share. Be sure to include relevant skills you gained, accomplishments you achieved or milestones you reached during your education.
Post Mortem
1.8.0 Update: Pedal to the metal
Text
Was the main level designer for the project’s largest open world level in the game. Taking ownership and responsibility for the map’s state throughout production, and often taking responsibility to fix any issues that arose in late development.
Role and responsibilities
-
Main level Designer for the updates large open world map
-
Custodian of quality.
-
Mission and puzzle design
-
Enemy combat encounters and bases
Text
Briefly describe your degree and any other highlights about your studies you want to share. Be sure to include relevant skills you gained, accomplishments you achieved or milestones you reached during your education.
Post Mortem
1.7.0 Update: Pedal to the metal
Text
Was the main level designer for the project’s largest open world level in the game. Taking ownership and responsibility for the map’s state throughout production, and often taking responsibility to fix any issues that arose in late development.
Role and responsibilities
-
Main level Designer for the updates large open world map
-
Custodian of quality.
-
Mission and puzzle design
-
Enemy combat encounters and bases
Text
Briefly describe your degree and any other highlights about your studies you want to share. Be sure to include relevant skills you gained, accomplishments you achieved or milestones you reached during your education.
Post Mortem