Tales from the Rift
March – November 2020
Role: Developer / Environment Artist
Tales from the Rift is a 3rd person adventure game set in a folklore inspired Japanese forest. Players take the role of Kaida as she is searching for her missing best friend Hitoshi.
Key Responsibilities
- Managed a multi-disciplinary team (sound designer, composer, script writer, concept artist, freelancers) for the entirety of the project
- Blocked out and iterated on environment and level flow based on player feedback
- Modeled, textured and lit all environment assets
- Scripted all interactions and the main bosses 'vision' in C#
Style Reference
Artistically I originally wanted the game to be based on Sumi-e watercolour art, but to technically create the shaders required for the style was a challenge. Focusing on what was doable in the time frame I had, I decided to rely on an aesthetic similar to RIME. I did however choose to use colour values from traditional Ukiyo-e woodblock art as my palette, in order to help separate myself from RIME.
Overview
Blockout
The level went through several iterations as the project went on. Because I had decided on having an exterior portion to the game, I originally wanted the player to get up high for a large view, but the time it would take / the amount of asset generation needed would have over scoped the project. So I instead chose to build down into the earth, into the river so that verticality was still present but everything was still kept at the 'ground' level.