The Making of Forgotten Valley Artbook

This is the entire body of work for my fourth-year university major project.
The Forgotten Valley is an adventure-survival video game that follows protagonist Dani and her three flatmates, who are forced to flee the city and modern society into the wild unknown. While journeying through the forest in search of safety, they stumble upon an abandoned mining town. Instead of continuing on, they decide to rebuild and make it their new home. The player’s primary goal is to work alongside Dani’s companions to restore and revitalise the town using only found or natural materials.
For this project, I explored how game design can immerse and reconnect a digitally reliant queer audience with their real-world environment through interactive play and storytelling. In today’s gaming industry, developers have a unique opportunity to shape players' perspectives on social and environmental issues. With climate change and sustainability becoming urgent global concerns, games can serve as powerful tools to engage players in eco-conscious thinking. A well-designed game can foster a connection with nature by integrating eco-narratives, nature play, and permaculture principles, encouraging players to work with nature rather than against it.
The Forgotten Valley was designed as an immersive open-world experience with a player-driven narrative. It emphasises resourcefulness, critical thinking, and collaboration, challenging players to rebuild a home while navigating relationships that impact their survival. Final deliverables include a physical model of the game environment and an art book, The Making of The Forgotten Valley, which documents the player’s journey and core gameplay mechanics in the early game.

In addition, the final chapter of the book details the modelling process of 3D modelling the cabin environment using physical modelling methods. This was to get a more unique perspective on how the characters in-game would potentially approach rebuilding the cabin environment using found and natural materials.