Worldbuilding storiesCreating worlds that feel real, alive, mailable, and fantastical - yet still highly relatable to the everyday person, is a wonderful skill to build.
Worldbuilding Stories - Main Concepts
©Moodboards by myself - please do not share forwards.
Project Gamma
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Role: Co-Director (Team of 2), Lead Narrative Writer & Designer (Solo) and Creative Lead (Team of 2).
Genre: Narrative‑driven sci‑fi action FPS with faction‑based progression.
Tone: Industrial oppression, dystopic, politics, rebellion, alien cultural tension, systemic power struggles
Project Gamma is a character‑driven sci‑fi RPG set in a world where Humans and Saeuns coexist under the authoritarian AGH regime. Players navigate the tension between industrial exploitation, rebellion movements, and alien cultural preservation. Through combat, diplomacy, and strategic influence, players determine whether the world fractures, unifies, or transforms. -
Human industrial zones and Saeun bio‑cities are held under strict AGH control — a regime that enforces order through surveillance, militarised labour, and cultural suppression. Beneath this structure, rebellion movements rise independently within both species, each with different motivations and methods - but a tenuous truce is made.
Meanwhile the AGH causes a war between all humans and Lythans, another very powerful alien species. -
As Kesh, a Saeun Rebellion soldier, you are sent out on missions to fight the AGH or rescue innocents from the fighting between the AGH and the Lythans (another alien race). After each mission you return to Rebellion base and the story progresses through conversation.
Loop:Explore industrial zones, Saeun districts, AGH facilities
Engage in tactical combat or stealth infiltration
Gather intel through conversations, hacking, cultural archives
Influence factions via choices, alliances, sabotage
Upgrade gear using Human tech or Saeun bio‑crafting
Return to base to plan missions, manage relationships, and unlock narrative beats
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Relationship Map (High‑Level)
Humans ↔ Saeuns:
Tense coexistence
Potential alliance through shared oppression
Cultural misunderstandings create friction
Rebellion ↔ AGH:
Direct conflict
AGH seeks control and progression; rebellion seeks autonomy and the rebuilding of Earth
Both human groups have rebels and loyalists and people somewhere inbetween
Human Rebellion ↔ Saeun Rebellion:
Initially a collaborative, but two groups of Saeun begin to form - one will attempt a coup which disturbs the alliance
Merge through narrative choices
Combined force threatens AGH dominance
AGH Humans ↔ AGH Saeuns:
Professional cooperation
Underlying distrust due to biological differences
©Image designed by Yasmin, owned by Gift of the Gods team
The Gift of the Gods
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The core idea of the game was given to me. It followed Nobody, a young woman sent into the divine Trials by the gods.
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The game follows Nobody, a young woman sent into the divine Trials by the Unbelievers, a human group rebelling against the gods. They have developed a technology called The Ascension, which has hijacked the Gods’ selection process for the trials. The Unbelievers manipulates people into volunteering to join them and Ascend.
She arrives with no memory and must complete four Trials - Demeter, Poseidon, Ares, and Zeus - each one teaching a lesson about a human sin that is causing suffering on earth.
On Earth, Athens (Nobody’s hometown) is collapsing under hunger, pride, violence, and ambition (the sins being addressed), while Olympus remains a magical, ancient world untouched by mortal problems.
As Nobody explores each god’s realm, she discovers memory fragments and emotional messages left behind by past Unbeliever and regular Trials participants, revealing how they were manipulated and why they failed.
Through the Trials, she learns that Ares is secretly working with the Unbelievers to overthrow Olympus, and Zeus has allowed this in order to expose him once and for all.
After completing Zeus’ Trial, Nobody returns to the mortal world for a final confrontation and must choose who should hold the power she now wields: Zeus and the gods, the Unbelievers, or herself. The players choice shapes the fate of both worlds.
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The gameplay loop was fairly simple, with variations built into it via the thematic and mechanics of the level.
New level to explore is revealed to player
Play in-game mini activities e.g. finding the missing hats for scarecrows
Gather items, hidden weapons and memories through exploration
Lore for both Athens and Olympus is revealed via environmental beats
Player meets the God in charge of the level and is given the trial activity
On completion, or failure, player decision is made which creates buffs and debuffs to the player going forwards.
After leaving the level, player receives a cutscene about the situation in Athens as Nobody’s memories
Each level reveals more on the God’s narrative backgrounds and dynamics through their dialogue and the environmental beats. Each post-level cutscene reveals lore on Athens via Nobody’s memories returning. Both inform the players eventual decision.
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The ending branches into three options depending on player ethical decision making, which results in a different end cutscene. I created a narrative ending which avoided the dissatisfaction of not achieving an in-game power if one picked the ‘good’ ending.
Celestial
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Our team set out to build a three‑level sci‑fi puzzle game in three months, using third‑person movement and gravity mechanics. The goal wasn’t to finish the whole game but to see how far we could push the concept.
We completed almost all of the 3D models, fully animated our main character, and built the first level along with the first puzzle.
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Starlight, a celestial being, crashes onto Umbarsh after being pulled away from her sister Lumina by a black hole. The planet’s former inhabitants abandoned it after predicting its collapse, but Starlight discovers that the black hole is actually a portal.
She meets Nova, who is grieving the loss of his brother Dusk and tries to stop her. By collecting star fragments, Starlight can cleanse Nova’s corruption and convince him to help her. Together, they can confront the anomaly and save both Lumina and Dusk.
If the player fails to gather enough fragments, Umbarsh falls, Nova continues searching alone, and the black hole remains.
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Each level contains a puzzle that opens the path to the next. The map is linear but allows backtracking.
Star fragments are scattered across the map and tracked in the HUD. Their purpose is revealed at the end, which encourages replay for the alternate ending.
The first puzzle teaches the gravity push and pull ability by clearing a boulder.
The second puzzle involves reading star logs left by the previous inhabitants and rotating a gemstone.
The third puzzle begins at the unpowered Observatory. The player must reflect light across the island using mirror pedestals to activate the crystal. The second half uses the telescope, requiring rotation, movement, and reading clues to locate Lumina.
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Nova blocks the entrance to the Observatory. If the player has collected enough star fragments, Starlight can cleanse him and they combine their power to save their siblings and confront the anomaly.
If not, Nova refuses to help. The player can still find Lumina, but Umbarsh cannot be saved and the black hole continues to grow.
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Starlight is based on a yellow giant like Polaris or our own sun. These stars are bright but not the strongest, which fits her character.
Lumina is inspired by a pulsar. She is younger but far more energetic and stable, with pink tones and blue trails of light.
Nova’s corrupted form draws from black hole imagery. If freed, he becomes a red dwarf, which suits his quiet, cautious nature.
Dusk is based on a brown dwarf, a star that never fully ignited. It has very little light, which works well for a vulnerable character.
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Core beliefs: They saw stars as divine and as the source of all elements and life. Nature, celestial bodies, and living beings were part of one sacred cycle of creation and dissolution. Their spirituality came directly from their scientific understanding of stellar physics.
Rituals and practices: Their homes were built in alignment with constellations. Stained‑glass windows made from silica‑rich sand filtered light to mimic starlight, creating calming spectral patterns based on their research into how wavelengths affect mental states.
Celestium: Their technology relied on Celestium Crystals, rare minerals with quantum resonance. These crystals absorb high‑frequency radiation and generate stable antigravity and electromagnetic power. Naturally occurring deposits cause buds to float, which hints at their properties. They used Celestium to power levitating telescopes equipped with multi‑spectrum imaging, gravitational wave sensors, and obsidian lenses.
Impact of the supernova: The coming supernova was both a spiritual loss and a scientific inevitability. Their understanding of stellar life cycles shaped a philosophy that accepted impermanence and transformation, which ultimately motivated their departure.