Tale of Souls is a dark-fantasy roguelike deckbuilder released on PC. The founder contributed gameplay systems, interface improvements and technical leadership during a professional engagement at Gravity Software.
Context and challenge
Bring consistency to interface navigation and feedback while making interconnected gameplay systems easier to test, extend and integrate during production.
Gameplay, interface and integration
System Enhancements: Improved and expanded core gameplay systems, including dialogue, reputation, decision-making, skills, card effects, in-game events, and player stats.
UI Overhaul: Completely reworked the user interface to enhance feedback, navigation, and overall user experience across all gameplay stages.
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.
Debug System: Created an in-editor debug system to streamline development, enabling faster testing and issue resolution across systems.
Team Guidance: Provided mentorship and guidance to the development team, fostering a collaborative, efficient, and growth-oriented environment.
Cross-disciplinary production
- 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.
Interface and debugging, in depth
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.
Professional context
Previous professional engagement at Gravity Software.
Released on Steam on 17 July 2024. The Steam listing credits Phoenix Rise Studios as developer and publisher. That product attribution is separate from the founder’s Gravity Software engagement.
