About the project

Crafting a charming little hellscape

Client

Self

Year

2018

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- Dante's Inferno, nine circles of hell
- illustrative design system
- constraints: unity development, mechanics limitations so leaning on visual impact

Process

The illusion of a seamless illustrated world

500+

Pages of sketches

1600+

Modular art assets

9

Sprawling levels

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- levels built from thousands of modular assets, anchored around set pieces to create illusion of fully-illustrated world (looping to optimize asset use, 9-slice)
- dynamic lighting, animation, parallax camera, particle effects
- player testing & teaching without tutorials (how to craft fun learning experiences)
- cute & charming contrasting with frequent player death and hellish afterlife (tone decisions)

Sketches of level designs, character concepts, and mechanics

500+ pages of sketches, level designs, character concepts, and mechanic designs.

Unity screenshot of the development environment

Custom raycast collision engine built in Unity, with community plugins for cameras, AI, achievements, and special particle effects.

Player journey map of introducing new mechanics and challenges

Because game's progression is linear, it was important to plan sequential discovery and teaching experiences for each new challenge.

Results

Ambition cometh before the fall

"

All hope abandon, ye who enter here!"

Dante Alighieri

During the project's development cycle, the number of indie games released annually on Steam grew by 300%. Because of the dramatic market shift and the increased need for crunch to meet development goals, the project was put on indefinite hiatus.

Each level with its own visual theme, unique set-pieces, and gameplay challenges

Let's talk about building a scalable illustration system for your next project.

Learn more about me, or contact me about opportunities to work together.