DND GROUP PROJECT
DND DARK FANTASY INTERACTIVE GAME
★GROUP PROJECT★
Hey everyone!!
This time I will be sharing with you my progress for my third year group project! It's very exciting and challenging as I am pushing myself with all these new skills and diving into specific specialisms.
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As you know I like to listen to music, so for todays post, the song that is keeping me going is...
Dove e Quando
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Let's get into it! This post I will be filling you all in with what I have been working on, some cool models, materials and VFX that I have been making.
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Project Overview
The Decree of the Lich King is a dark fantasy turn-based game set inside a ruined cathedral environment. The project focuses on strategic combat, character abilities, and atmospheric world-building, with an emphasis on creating a visually cohesive and immersive experience.
The cathedral setting plays an important role in shaping the tone of the game, with broken pillars, wide open spaces, religious elements, and environmental storytelling helping reinforce the dark fantasy atmosphere. The aim is to create a space that feels abandoned, mysterious, and dangerous while still supporting clear gameplay and movement for turn-based combat.
It's a single player game, players get to use two chcarcters to try and defeat an evil Lich king who used to be a priest at a cathedral. You'll play as Valeria who is the knight and your healer is another preist, Lucian, and the boss you'll be fighting is Kael, the Lich King.
My Role in the Project
My main focus in the project has been creating weapons and visual effects (VFX), along with some materials, props, and environmental effects. The goal has been to support gameplay and character identity while keeping everything consistent with the dark fantasy theme and cathedral environment.
Working on this project has allowed me to explore real-time VFX in Unreal Engine, weapon sculpting, and material creation while collaborating with a team on a shared game world.
Weapon Development
The weapons were designed to reflect each character’s role and personality within the game.
The knight’s sword was created to feel heavy and powerful, with a wide engraved guard and a red gemstone that connects to the character’s colour scheme and reinforces his presence in combat.
The healer’s church censer was designed to act as both a weapon and a magical focus, with engraved glyphs and a structure that supports healing abilities and visual effects.
A snake spear was developed as a villain weapon, focusing on a more aggressive and symbolic design, combining organic and hard-surface elements to create a threatening silhouette.
Each weapon was designed with readability and character identity in mind, ensuring that they fit naturally within the dark fantasy world.
Visual Effects Development
A large part of my contribution has been creating visual effects for character abilities and environmental elements.
The healer abilities focus on controlled and ritualistic magic, with swirling healing effects and projectiles designed to visually connect characters and communicate support abilities clearly.
Elemental effects such as ice and lightning were developed to create contrast in gameplay. Ice effects focus on physical interaction with the environment, with rising ice, debris, and collisions to give attacks more weight, while lightning effects are fast and high-impact, striking from above with sharp and dynamic movement.
Arcane effects are still in progress, focusing on structured and geometric visuals to differentiate them from holy and elemental magic.
Throughout this process, I’ve been working with node-based materials, alpha masking, panning techniques, and layered noise textures to create motion, depth, and readable effects in real time.
Environment and Atmosphere
The cathedral environment is designed to support both gameplay and atmosphere. Wide spaces allow for turn-based combat, while broken pillars, benches, pews, and the main altar create a strong visual focal point and reinforce the dark fantasy theme.
Environmental VFX such as fireflies, candlelight, and embers were added to bring life to the space and prevent the environment from feeling static.
These small details help create a more immersive and atmospheric experience for the player.
Development and Learning
One of the biggest takeaways from working on The Price on Kael has been understanding how much iteration and collaboration goes into game development.
From sculpting weapons to building VFX and materials, every element requires testing, feedback, and refinement to ensure it fits both the gameplay and the visual direction of the project.
This project has helped me develop my skills in Unreal Engine, real-time VFX, weapon design, and working within a team environment while contributing to a complete game experience.
Looking Forward
The Price on Kael is still in development, and we are continuing to improve the game through testing and feedback.
You can try the game here:
https://joelseguin.itch.io/the-price-on-kael
I’ll continue sharing more updates, including weapon breakdowns, VFX showcases, and development progress as the project evolves.
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