Twelve Planet Revolution

Project Overview

Dark Action combat game prototype
August - December 2024
Unity
PC
Made With a Team of 8
My Roles on Team
- Lead Narrative Designer
- VFX Artist

The Player Using Gravity Well and Mine Ability Combo

The central feature of this game is a unique system of spellcasting in which the player starts with two randomly assigned spells, then has the ability to reroll one each time they kill an enemy. Players must use these ever-changing abilities to fight guards and break out of a prison to escape.

The Player Killing an Enemy With the Lightning Ability and the Ability Rerolling into the Dash Ability

Narrative

The game has a lot of lore, being set in a post apocalyptic future where 12 mysterious planets have shown up in the sky and caused the whole world to go insane. Nations have collapsed and the world has devolved into a few megacities run by oppressive military cults that worship the planets.

First Slide of the Intro Sequence Explaining the World's Backstory

The player takes the role of a prisoner who discovers two mysterious orbs that look like the planets. They must then use the unknowable and barely controllable cosmic power of these orbs to take down the cult ruling the city.

Intro Sequence Depicting Orbs

Intro Sequence Describing the World

Time constraints and other restrictions meant that much of this lore had to be conveyed as quickly as possible within tight parameters. Instead of spreading the information across multiple levels as originally intended, I therefore adapted and condensed much of it into an introductory slideshow. We also did not have the resources for full cutscenes, so we chose to use static images of posed models, environments, and visual effects with brief text descriptions to convey the world to the player.

Quick Storyboard for the Final Shot of the Intro Sequence

Final Shot of the Intro Sequence

I tried to make the text short and understandable and the images visually interesting to not overwhelm new players and keep them engaged. Despite these challenges, I received positive feedback from testers who felt that the narrative elements gave them a much better sense of what was going on in the game, compared to early prototypes without them.

I also added a brief concluding slideshow to give the player a sense of closure and get them hyped for hypothetical future levels.

First Shot of the Outro Sequence

Second Shot of the Outro Sequence

To further flesh out the story more for attentive players, I included numerous small details such as blood paintings of the planets on the walls and signs about cult infrastructure during the level itself. These were very easy to add, and help flesh out the story more for attentive players.

Blood Planet Drawings on the Wall

Sign Depicting Cult Information

Cult Banner Showing the Planets they Worship

VFX

I also made the VFX in the game, including a gravity well which pulls particles towards it and a mine which creates an explosion and lights fires. I wanted to give these VFX a planetary theme to keep them on-brand with the story and to remind the player of where their power comes from.

Mine VFX with a Planet Texture

Gravity Well VFX With a Planet Texture

Gravity Well VFX

Overall though it did not continue past a single level Twelve Planet Revolution was an interesting exercise of conveying a lot of narrative information to a player in a relatively short amount of time with limited resources in order to get them invested for a hypothetical future story.