UE5 Environment Experience: "Your Local Park"

This project is an interactive skatepark visualization built in Blender and Unreal Engine.

As a lifelong skateboarder, I’ve always wanted to design a park that feels authentic to how skaters actually use space. This concept explores what an ideal local skatepark could look like for small cities and large towns approachable, functional, and enjoyable across all skill levels.

The layout emphasizes beginner to intermediate flow while still supporting more advanced lines. Obstacles are intentionally spaced and scaled to encourage progression, with a dedicated flatground and slappy zone that allows for technical practice without disrupting park circulation—something often overlooked in real-world designs.

Material contrast was also important. The park is primarily concrete, with touches of brick to introduce subtle variation in texture and ride feel. A central tree and a bold orange shade structure break up the typical monotony of skatepark environments, adding both visual identity and practical shade. The goal was to create a space that feels less like a sterile facility and more like a welcoming, third space environment.

The project is presented as a downloadable, real time experience, allowing users to explore the park in both first and third person. Movement includes walking, sprinting, and jumping, giving a grounded sense of scale and flow throughout the space.

This concept also explores how interactive visualization can be used in the planning phase, giving local skate communities the ability to experience and provide feedback on a park before it’s built.
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The process began with a full blockout of the skatepark layout in Blender to establish scale, flow, and obstacle placement. Once the layout was finalized, all primary environment meshes were modeled and refined within Blender, with much attention given to proportion of obstacles. After modeling and UV mapping were completed, the assets were exported into Unreal Engine for scene assembly. From there, I began building out the surrounding environment—starting with a landscape base and shaping a contained “island” of grass to frame the skatepark and give it a grounded, intentional setting.

Material development and texturing followed, with a focus on realism and subtle detail. The concrete surfaces were enhanced with relief cracks and surface variation to better reflect the wear and character of real-world skateparks, while maintaining clean readability at gameplay scale. To support interactivity, I integrated a pre-built movement system sourced from Fab and configured it to fit the experience. This allowed for smooth player traversal and established the core of the interactive component. A simple HUD was then implemented to provide user guidance and onboarding within the experience. The project concluded with a final polish pass on lighting and materials to unify the scene visually, followed by packaging and exporting the project as a standalone, downloadable build. The environment makes full use of nanite and lumen.