Tale of Souls
RPG • Strategy • Roguelike • Adventure
Available in: Steam
Project Overview
- Role(s): Lead Programmer
- Team Size: 83 programmers, 3 artists, 1 QA, 1 producer
- Organization: Blue Gravity Studios
- Engine: Unity
- Status: Released
🧠 Technical Contributions
🛠️ What I Built
UI Overhaul: Completely reworked the user interface to enhance feedback, navigation, and overall user experience across all gameplay stages.
Debug System: Created an in-editor debug system to streamline development, enabling faster testing and issue resolution across systems.
System Enhancements: Improved and expanded core gameplay systems, including dialogue, reputation, decision-making, skills, card effects, in-game events, and player stats.
Visual Effects Integration: Implemented VFX across key gameplay moments to add visual impact, enhance clarity, and reinforce feedback loops.
Art Pipeline Integration: Integrated new art assets from the art team into the game, ensuring seamless visual consistency and optimization.
Team Guidance: Provided mentorship and guidance to the development team, fostering a collaborative, efficient, and growth-oriented environment.
🤝 How I Contributed
- Supported cross-disciplinary collaboration by bridging design, programming, and art needs throughout production.
- Championed development quality through best practices, code reviews, and proactive problem solving.
- Empowered teammates by building tools and documentation that streamlined their workflows and creative autonomy.
🧩 Challenges & Solutions
🛠️ Challenge: UI Inconsistency
Early versions of the UI lacked consistency in navigation, feedback, and visual hierarchy, leading to user confusion.
✔ Solution: Led a full UI overhaul that introduced unified layouts, clearer visual feedback, and smoother transitions between gameplay and menus.
⚙️ Challenge: Slowed Debugging
Testing and debugging new features was time-consuming, often requiring full playthroughs to verify isolated changes.
✔ Solution: Developed a robust debug system that enabled direct scenario triggering, status monitoring, and rapid iteration without disrupting gameplay flow.
🌟 Standout Features
🃏 Deck-Driven Gameplay
Every action—movement, combat, interactions—is driven by card play. The evolving deck system offers deep strategic customization while maintaining fast, responsive gameplay.
🌗 Dynamic Day/Night Cycle
An ever-shifting world where light affects movement, combat efficiency, arcane synergy, and enemy behavior, creating fresh tactical challenges across every run.
🏰 Key Game Features
Cursed: Bear the Velvet Blood, a potent curse granting immense powers at the cost of life itself. Navigate a world where your employer alone holds the antidote—and your survival depends on carrying out their mysterious missions.
Build Your Deck: Progress by expanding your deck with powerful cards, unlocking spells, abilities, artifacts, and alliances to shape your playstyle.
A Tale Emerges: Experience a procedurally generated world where each journey brings unique locations, moral dilemmas, and strategic challenges—no two runs are the same.
Crush Your Foes: Face enemies across a fractured kingdom, from rogue knights to power-hungry warlords. Master tactical combat that adapts to your evolving deck and strategy.
Brave the Knight: Adapt to shifting conditions as the day/night system transforms the world, altering exploration, visibility, and combat possibilities.
Be Respected or Feared: Your choices shape your reputation among the kingdom's settlements, influencing how characters respond, what services become available, and what dangers you face.