The look of the game
- Decision
- I set the art direction, so every area, shader and effect pulled toward one look.
Projects / Action RPG
Team of threeAction RPG
Four fragments of a broken sword, one village to save, and a samurai waiting at the end. An action RPG for PC, built by a team of three.
- My role
- Producer, level and environment designer, shader artist
- Team
- Three: me, a sound designer and a C# programmer
- Timeline
- December 2024 to June 2025
- Platform
- PC
- Engine
- Unity
- Status
- Stopped after the first area
In short
What it is, and what I did on it
The game
A village corrupted by a deal its king made. The protagonist, half turned himself, sets out to gather the four sword fragments and end it.
My part
I ran production for the team of three and set the look of the game. I built the camera, the environment and the shaders, and improved the player combat.
Where it stands
The first area of part one is playable. The project stopped there: the art it needed was more than three people could make, and a teammate had to step away.
Production
How it was run
Three people, each with a clear lane, and a level planned in four parts.
Me. Production, the art direction, the camera, the environment and level design, the shaders, the gameplay video and improvements to the player combat.
The programmer. Most of the AI code and the player code.
The sound designer. I wrote the list of sounds and talked through how each should feel. The sounds came back to me, I put them in the game, and we tested and approved each one together.
Where the enemies go
- Decision
- Basic enemies at the start, and more kinds of enemy the further the player goes, so each new type arrives once the player is ready for it.
A terrain too big for the AI
- Problem
- The terrain was so large that the enemies crashed the game.
- What we did
- We split the terrain into smaller areas in code and gave the AI our own grid zones instead of Unity NavMesh.
- Result
- Each zone knows where an enemy can walk and when its enemies spawn and despawn, so the game holds together.
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How the grid zones work
- The terrain data is read and laid out as a grid
- Each cell is marked: walkable or not
- The grid for each area is saved as a JSON file and loaded with that area
- Enemies decide where to walk from their zone, not from the whole terrain
- Spawning and despawning run per zone, so only the enemies near the player are alive
Why it stopped
The game needed far more art than a team of three could make, and a teammate had to step away. We stopped after the first area.
Hands-on
What I built
The first area
Where the player begins. A statue of the ancient sword stands here, a replica that can hold the power of the four fragments. The camera, the environment and the shaders are mine.
Enemies
Melee and ranged enemies for different environments, with flying enemies planned for the second area. Basic enemies come first, and new kinds appear as the player goes further.
Character progression
The character collects and learns skills that unlock special attacks and charged attacks.
Story
The world it is set in
A careless king raises taxes until his village runs out of resources. A rival king, who prays to the devil, offers him endless wealth if he breaks the ancient sword his palace protects. The rival's people move in, their tainted supplies corrupt the villagers, and the protagonist, halfway to being turned himself, sets out to end the plan before it finishes him.
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The king
The village suffers from the decisions of a careless king who cares for his wealth and ignores his people. He raises the taxes, crime grows, and when the village starts to run out of resources he grows angry, refuses to hear the poor and orders them to work with whatever they can find.
The deal
An evil king who prays to the devil notices. He offers endless wealth and resources for the villagers, on one condition: the king must break the ancient sword his palace keeps safe and let the evil king's people live among his own.
The sword
The king breaks the sword into four pieces, ties them to horses and sends them off in four directions. The evil king's people settle among the villagers, and their supplies are always full.
The corruption
The villagers are wary, but with no other choice they use those supplies. The tainted resources corrupt everything, and just as the evil king planned, the villagers begin to turn into his own kind.
The protagonist
Halfway through being turned, he decides to end the evil king's plan himself before it finishes him.
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