Arenas, platforming, secrets
Levels start on paper, get blocked out in Unreal Engine 5, and are built around three arena types.
Levels start on paper
Level designer Tanya wrote this one up on 16 May 2026. Before anything is built, she makes a paper layout the team calls "pen to paper." That sketch becomes the foundation for the level in the engine.
The order is fixed. Gather input from game design, narrative, and art. Agree on what the location has to do. Sketch it. Then block it out in Unreal Engine 5 with cubes and cylinders, and calculate the metrics the architecture will follow.
Only after that does the level logic go in: arenas, platforming sections, cutscene entrances, and the Cat Bayun encounters.
Three arena flavours
The write-up is unusually direct about variety, and gives the reason. The game has many combat arenas, so they are deliberately made different. Four kinds are named:
| Arena type | What changes |
|---|---|
| Vertical | Height becomes part of the fight |
| Trap-filled | Hazards on the floor |
| Destructible | The arena can be broken down to the ground |
Three kinds are named, not four. The list is short, but it is a real design statement. It tells you the combat is meant to be interrupted by terrain rather than fought in flat boxes.
Platforming earns its place
This is the part that connects levels to the premise. Tsarevna moves like a ballerina, light and extended, so the platforming sections are built to let you cover distance and feel that movement.
In other words, the platforming is not filler between arenas. It exists because the character's locomotion is the selling point.
Exploration is in the plan
Levels are built so players who like exploring have something to find: collectible items and secret rooms.
No counts, no region names, no map. The game is not out and the studio has not published a level list.
Koschei's reach
The one lore hook in the post: the environment is used to show how Koschei's influence spreads across the Underworld. In some places his statues are still being built. In other places his castles already stand above the land.
Story through props rather than dialogue. It also puts Koschei's name in the material for the first time.
Coverage and gaps
The level designer's post is the only public source on Tsarevna's structure. It gives arena types and a production method, not a map.
The enemies that fill those arenas are on the four enemies and their roles. Combat as the store page frames it is here.
