Blight & Bloom: A Ronin's Tale
A Narrative driven Roguelite-platformer based on Arthurian Legend... if they were Mushrooms! This Masters degree project features puzzles, boss battles and surprising twist at the end.
Date
January 2025
Role(s)
Producer, Scrum Master, Narrative Lead, Support Programmer
Contribution
Project Management (Trello/Miro)
Wrote base Narrative Story & Lore/World History
Custom Boss Enemy AI & Mechanics
Custom Mini Boss Mechanics
Level Design Floor Plan
Pause Menu
Various Bugfixes and Polishing tweaks
Links
Engine/Software
Unreal Engine 5 C++/BP
Key Skills / Features
Project Management
Leadership
In-depth Narrative
Gameplay Design
Team Size
8
As Producer, I supported and assisted all areas of the game’s development, taking ownership of the project’s vision and narrative, and helping to inform and assist my team members with their respective roles.
During development my role was to make final decisions where necessary to keep game in scope and aligned with narrative and overall vision.
Problem
As the Producer, I want to maximise my team's willingness to participate in the project.
What I did
I created a table on Miro for my team to fill in to help introduce ourselves to each other, understand what skills we have, and to list our desired outcomes for the project.
Result / Feedback
The team's designers had visibility of everyone's aims, which fed into the game's design and helped members to feel seen. It also helped remind members of the potential beneficial outcomes if they contribute.
I scheduled the team meetings, created meeting agendas, and recorded minutes, also following up with team members who couldn’t make it afterwards to they stayed informed and up to date.
Problem
Most of the development team have not developed software either solo or as part of a team before.
What I did
After creating the Kanban/Scrum board on Trello, I held team meetings to onboard the team to Trello & Miro, explained Kanban & Scrum processes and created various guides & first-user tips for Trello to use as they get used to the systems.
Result / Feedback
The team was able to start working in a Scrum system quicker, and I received lots of feedback from my team members that they found it incredibly helpful for working as a team for the project.
Creating the Narrative
I came up with an original setting for the game, being a meld of Arthurian Legend - but with Mushroom knights and Squirrel warriors as their predominant enemies. I wrote a historical lore integrating various Mushroom-related features into a storyline, which dictates how Camelot was founded, how Squirrels and Mushrooms came to hold an strained but important peace, and why Morgana wants to ruin the peace that has been in place since Arthur Penfungus was crowned king (read the lore below).
Problem
We wanted to enable our artists/modellers to create reusable assets for level design that were feasible and worked for the game's direction and art style.
What I did
Designed a Sky Block style level plan. The playable ground would be made of reused blocks, and the environment artists could surround the blocks/ground with forest assets from a pack to create the setting.
Result / Feedback
This resulted in the game adding a platformer element to it, which we were happy with. The modeller member was able to contribute by creating reusable blocks to the environment artist's brief.
Programming the Final Boss
Morgana - the final Boss was programmed by me. In addition, I created exciting custom attacks for the mini bosses and configured their AI accordingly. I adjusted the core AI loop so that Morgana would have 3 stages of attacks depending on her health, and that she would randomly change between mid and long range attacks. I received lots of good feedback about the final boss fight, with playtesters enjoying the level of challenge and that it really 'felt' like a boss fight because of her abilities.
Problem
The game is a roguelite with 3 levels, however the majority of playtesters did not have the time to complete the game all the way through if they died and started again.
What I did
Redesigned the game to add checkpoints that keep some progress after dying. For example, after completing level 2 and dying in Level 3, the player can skip the completed puzzles in Level 2 and can enter level 3 if they defeat the Mini-boss guarding Level 3's entrance again.
Result / Feedback
Players did not have to re-do the lengthy and unchanging puzzles they had already completed, and instead get to enter level 3 quicker. but not for free, having to defeat the mini-boss first, which play-testers mostly enjoyed fighting on more than one occasion.
Mycelium Forest Lore - World History
Long ago, the Mushrooms and the Squirrels were locked in an endless war. The Squirrels, ancient stewards of the forest, held its oldest secrets, while the Mushrooms were proud but fractured - split into clans that feuded as much with each other as with their foes.
In those dark days, the Mushroom clans realised that only unity could preserve them against their common foe. They laid down their grudges, pooling their strength and knowledge against the Squirrels. It is told in some religions, that when the clan leaders joined hands in unity, the Fun Guy in the Sky rejoiced and rained His Holy Spores down upon the forest floor to bless the union, giving rise to the first Mycelium Network - a living web that binds Mushroom-kind together in thought and spirit to this day. This sacred place became known as the Forest of Origin, for every other Network in distant woods is said to have grown from this one.
The Network gave the Mushrooms a hive-mind-like strength, and with it, they turned the tide. Their unity brought dominance over the Squirrels, and soon they raised a great capital: Camelot, ruled by a council of clan representatives. But peace was not yet found. The Council, hungry for absolute rule over the Forest, pressed the war ever onward. The soil grew heavy with blood, and as it did, the Mycelium weakened, its voice dimming.
It might have withered entirely, had not one Mushroom stepped forward. A hero who brokered peace between enemies, healing the rift with words instead of steel. Recognizing their folly, the Council crowned this Mushroom as king. His name has echoed through history: Arthur Penfungus.
Under King Arthur’s reign, Mushroom-kind learned from their once-rivals, tending to the forest rather than consuming it. The Network flourished anew, and the Forest of Origin entered its first true age of peace.
Yet not all embraced this newfound harmony. Among the Mushrooms was the witch Morgana, who despised the Mycelium Network. To her, its unity dulled the edge of individuality and smothered the strength born of struggle. Where others saw peace, she saw weakness. In secret, Morgana plotted her schemes against King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Shroom, intent on severing the Network and bringing the age of peace to an end.
Should her plans succeed, the Forest would no longer thrive in unity - it would bend to her vision of ruthless survival as the era of her dark reign begins.
