Rise From Ruin

Project Overview

Wave Based Action Defense Game
January - May 2025
Unity
PC
Made With a Team of 18
My Roles on Team
- Narrative Designer
- VFX Designer
- Systems Designer

Image of the Game's Player Standing In The City

Rise From Ruin is a fast-paced action defense game where the player embodies a large, heroic, ancient beast defending a city from a horde of undead skeletons. I joined the large team midway through production, but was able to successfully integrate into the team and find new roles. I focused on VFX and narrative elements, but also assisted with systems design for the abilities and enemies.

My primary contributions to the final build included writing narrative-based tooltips, producing all the game's VFX, and creating cutscenes for the Win and Loss states of the game.

Writing Narrative Tooltips

Tooltips are often a small and overlooked aspect of games, but since our game had limited ways to convey narrative and deeper worldbuilding, I came up with the idea of using the tooltips to convey some of the game's worldbuilding and story.

The Tooltip Description for the Blue Fire Ability

The Tooltip Description for the Ice Rain Ability

I chose to phrase the tooltips as if they were diegetic notes written by people living in the city describing the beast and its actions. The goal of each note was not only to describe the ability but also to convey the scale and legendary nature of the player character, feeding into the game's power fantasy intentions. There are twelve descriptions in total. Four describe the character’s main abilities. Each ability then has two upgrades, leading to eight more tooltip descriptions. The upgrade descriptions are shorter than the main ability descriptions.

Upgrade Descriptions for the Blue Fire Ability

Upgrade Descriptions for the Ice Rain Ability

I originally created rough drafts of these notes as a proof of concept. I got positive feedback, but the first versions of the notes proved too long to be used as effective tooltips.

Original Proof of Concept Version of the Stomp Ability Tool Tip Description

Original Proof of Concept Version of the Ice Wall Ability Tool Tip Description

I ultimately rewrote the texts to be considerably shorter and prioritize the description of the ability.

Shortened Stomp Ability Description

Shortened Ice Wall Ability Description

Finally these texts were put into the game as full tooltips that could be read by the player.

The Final In Game Tooltip Description for the Stomp Ability

The Final In Game Tooltip Description for the Ice Wall Ability

VFX

Rise From Ruin has a large amount of VFX, including player ability effects, enemy effects, and environmental effects. I created these visual effects were created using Unity VFX Graphs, Unity Particle Systems, and Shader Graphs. The four main player ability effects are the Fire Breath VFX, the Stomp VFX, the Ice Wall VFX, and the Crystal Rain VFX.

The four main player ability VFX are the Fire Breath VFX, the Slam VFX, the Ice Wall VFX, and the Crystal Rain VFX.

Stomp VFX

Ice Wall VFX

Blue Fire VFX

Ice Rain VFX

Enemy VFX include a slash attack, shields, and smoke around taken towers.

The Slash and Impact VFX When the Player is Attacked by a Brute Enemy

The Smoke and Shields and Captured Towers

Environmental VFX include water shaders, campfires, and sky assets such as clouds. I made the game's sky box and came up with the idea of putting one of the game's large sword assets in front of its overly large sun as a thematic visual.

Player Standing Near a Waterfall Sowing the Splash VFX, Water Shader, and Some Fireflies

The Large Sword Striking the Sun from the Skybox I Made

Making Cutscenes

Another of my contributions involved producing the pre-recorded videos that serve as the Rise From Ruin’s Win and Loss cutscenes. These were added late into development so I had to create them quickly while still preserving a level of quality.

I started by brainstorming a list of potential shots and creating proof of concept images from edited game screenshots, then consulted with the artists in the group.

Shot Plan of the Game City with Purple Lines Representing Rising Purple Smoke

Shot Plans with Sentences Describing Different Shots and a Rough Draft of What The Video Poems Could Look Like

Early List of the Shots from the Win Video

These early plans changed as the process went on, but proved to be a useful first step in coming up with a clear plan and communicating my vision to others.

Once the plans were finalized, I filmed the footage in Unity using the Timelines feature and the Recorded Clip add-on to record dynamic in-game shots and VFX. These scenes were then edited together with Adobe editing software.

Both the Win and Loss scenes have two halves. The first part focuses on dramatic effects and action, while the second section features slower scenes and incorporates lines from a poem written by another narrative designer.

Shot from the First Half of the Win Video Showing a Massive Shield Surrounding the City

Shot from the Second Half of the Win Video Showing the Progression of Time and How the Player Is Still Stone

The first half of the Loss cutscene is meant to convey a sense of the city being overrun by unstoppable evil. I wanted it to give the feeling of being completely consumed. To achieve this, I had the cutscene show the citadel the player defends in the game being destroyed, then the whole city being consumed by the same dark purple smoke that encircles towers taken by enemies during the game. The ancient stone menhir then begins glowing with corrupted purple light, showing how the land has been taken.

Shot from the Loss Video of a Group of Brute Enemies Destroying the Citadel

Shot from the Loss Video Showing Dark Purple Smoke Consuming the City and the Ancient Stone Menhir Becoming Corrupted

The first half of the win cutscene is meant to convey a sense of heroic victory. The player unleashes a shock wave that disintegrates the enemies, and green healing vines grow amongst the enemy ranks in a manner similar to the VFX when the player takes back a corrupted enemy tower during gameplay.

Shot from the Win Video Showing the Players Magic Vines Growing Throughout the Enemy Army's Ranks

Shot from the Win Video of the Player Character Unleashing a Wave of Devastating Power Disintegrating Enemies

The second, slower halves of the cutscenes focus on the poems and the aftermath of the intense events in the game. When the poems appear on screen, I had to make sure they were easily readable and that they remained on screen long enough to be read by the average person. To that end, I chose to have the poems fade in line by line at different points in the video, allowing me to place more emphasis on each line.

For the Loss video poem, the first two lines convey a sense of defeat and failure whereas the last two represent a more hopeful tone. To convey this tone through the visuals, I had the camera and the city become covered in smoke to represent the enemy takeover. The first two lines of the poem fade into to convey the sense of hopelessness, yet those lines fade quickly fade away, the next two hopeful lines fade in along with a sound effect for the monster breaking out of stone to represent there is still hope. There is then a brief shot of the smoke lifting to reveal a new settlement before the video ends.

Sped Up Gif of the Loss Video's Poem

For the Win video poem, the first three lines fade in over an overhead shot of the city from a distance near one of the swords. I made the shot largely empty to avoid distracting from the writing, and dimmed the brightness of some of the other swords. This part of the video is meant to convey a sense of calm after the big, dramatic previous segment. The final line fades in later, near a shot of the player turned to stone to convey a sense of bittersweetness that the battle has been won but the noble protector is now stone forever.

Sped Up Gif of the Win Video's Poem

You can play Rise From Ruin right now on Steam for free with the image link below: