End of Abyss places the responsive combat and interconnected exploration of an action Metroidvania inside an oppressive underground facility filled with abandoned machinery, brutalist structures, and distorted creatures. Released on October 1 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, the game follows combat technician Cel as an investigation into unexplained disturbances becomes a descent through the facility’s forgotten depths.

The project was developed by Malmö-based Section 9 Interactive, a small studio established by former Tarsier Studios developers whose previous work included Little Nightmares. However, the team’s influences extend well beyond games. Its visual direction draws from the craftsmanship of 1980s and 1990s movies, comics, and anime, particularly the practical effects of The Thing and the framing and animation of Akira and Ghost in the Shell. Older The Legend of Zelda and Metroid games also informed the creatures’ strangely appealing silhouettes.

In the following interview, Marcus Ottvall, Co-Founder of Section 9 Interactive, explains how End of Abyss evolved from a responsive action prototype into a more atmospheric horror experience. The team also discusses designing fear from a top-down perspective, creating interconnected environments, iterating on enemy concepts inside Unreal Engine, and balancing clear combat spaces against the darkness and uncertainty necessary for horror.

End of Abyss combines the unsettling atmosphere of psychological horror with top-down action combat and Metroidvania exploration. What was the original creative vision for the project, and how did it evolve throughout development?

Marcus Ottvall, Co-Founder of Section 9 Interactive: We began work on End of Abyss based on an older prototype that had the basic movement and gameplay gadgets. We discussed what direction to take if we were to create a finished product based on it. As we started to create the moodboards and some isolated test environments with enemies, we decided to go with the atmospheric approach of a fictional underground facility where something had gone wrong.

Several members of Section 9 Interactive previously worked on Little Nightmares at Tarsier Studios. How did that experience influence your approach to End of Abyss, particularly its art direction, environmental storytelling, atmosphere, and creature design?

Marcus Ottvall: The art direction of the games we previously worked on has been super strong, so it has probably influenced the way we approach certain elements of creating a world for the game. We still find it interesting for example to create environments and creatures that show what the place is about without telling much beyond that. We like the idea of the player exploring a world where there is a mystery about how areas are connected and slowly getting hints of what the bigger picture is.

What were the biggest artistic inspirations behind this world, and how did you establish its visual language?

Marcus Ottvall: The inspiration for this game mostly comes from the things that we grew up with. We really like the movies, games, comic books and anime created around the 1980s and 1990s. The craftsmanship had to be particularly good back then and the more manual work gave it a special feel. Movies like The Thing, for example, used animatronics and practical effects and set pieces, and anime movies like Ghost in the Shell and Akira had incredible animation and framing of scenes.

We tried to rely on basic ways to show and maintain the impression of the world. For example, by starting the game showing large, empty shafts, along with creaking metal and chunky concrete structures, we wanted to establish the basic premise of the location that you are in. We then tried to create certain scenes and areas throughout the game that would have similar elements, to remind the player that they are in this large interconnected underground environment.

How did you approach lighting, camera framing, environmental composition, and visual storytelling to preserve a feeling of dread when players can see much of their surroundings? It's a very unique combination of art styles and perspectives.

Marcus Ottvall: To bring out the sense of horror we used some basic elements. Being underground meant we couldn’t create too much natural ambient light, so we had to create our own fictional ambience. We could also utilize the lack of natural light to keep parts of an environment dark by lighting the scenes with only one or a few light sources. We also used dust and fog particles to create a sense of atmosphere. In some areas, the flashlight helped a lot making them creepy to explore. It was a constant challenge to show enough of the environment for players to easily navigate and engage in combat, while trying to keep it creepy enough to maintain a sense of unease.

Beside that, we felt that much of the fear comes from not knowing what you are about to experience, so we tried to lean into that when we were able to, setting up scenarios that could surprise the player or keep them on edge.

Can you walk us through your environment art and level design process, from early blockouts and reference gathering to modeling, materials, lighting, and final implementation?

Marcus Ottvall: We collected a lot of references for the environments, some of which we were able to use as inspiration when creating the concept art. We knew that we wouldn’t be able to create concepts for every room in the entire game so for some areas, we had discussions based on references and went on to block them out from there. We would then apply the first art pass to the areas that we were most comfortable with, and iterate on others by modifying and recreating blockouts that we felt were lacking. We tried to complement this with paintover concepts and by mocking up extra environment areas.

It differed slightly for areas that contained combat/exploration and for areas that held more artistic or story set pieces but we mostly went with this approach.

How did the team approach creature creation, and what did the production pipeline look like from early concepts and animation prototypes to finished encounters?

Marcus Ottvall: Besides the inspirations mentioned before, we like the almost cute aesthetic of games like the older Legend of Zelda or Metroid games. When creating the characters, we started off by discussing an enemy’s features and attack patterns, and tried to develop a character that would fit those gameplay features while still feeling like a part of the world. We sketched a lot of quick concepts, implemented quick animations and feature mockups in the engine until we found something that we liked. From there we went back to trying to figure out a final concept and then creating the final model, rig and animations. In some cases we went through fewer iterations, in others we had to work through quite a lot of them to get closer to what we were looking for.

How did you approach designing Cel's movement, weapons, dodging, enemy reactions, and combat feedback while making sure the gameplay remained consistent with the game's atmosphere?

Marcus Ottvall: The rather responsive movement comes from the prototype version of the game, and that was something that we liked, so we kept the base of it but tuned it towards something that would fit the more atmospheric approach. We wanted to make weapons and bullets to feel like they had a solid impact on enemies and tried to implement reactions and simple destruction for the enemies to enhance that. We also wanted Cel to not feel too static in the world, while not allowing her to jump or run anywhere. So we approached that by creating specific animations for interactions and reactions, where she would interact with computer panels, fall to the ground from an explosion or a heavy impact, or get thrown by a large enemy.

What software, engine features, and production tools did the team use to build End of Abyss? Were there any particularly interesting technical solutions or custom workflows developed for its environments, enemy behaviors, animation, rendering, or lighting?

Marcus Ottvall: We used Unreal Engine 4, and then moved to UE5. For asset creation we used Maya, Blender, ZBrush, Substance Painter and Photoshop as our main software programs. We used some plugins for the different software and created simple enemy destruction and behavior systems, but we are not the most technical team, so we mostly used familiar game development tricks to achieve many of the visual and gameplay elements, including some that might look somewhat technical.

Looking back on that process, what were the biggest creative or technical challenges, and what lessons would you share with other smaller studios attempting to build a similarly ambitious 3D experience?

Marcus Ottvall: The Metroidvania aspect was particularly challenging because it took a lot of time to test and iterate on. Creating connected rooms that you need to be able to transition smoothly between through multiple entrances and exits was also tricky. Another problematic and common aspect of creating games was that we became so good at playing our game that it was hard to get a feel for the balance of gameplay difficulty.

Marcus Ottvall, Co-Founder of Section 9 Interactive