Design & Development: Karuna Ketan
What if progression was earned through understanding systems, not leveling numbers?
Shattered Charms: Through the Veil is a third-person Action RPG prototype focused on modular combat design and economy-driven progression. Set in a world fractured by a mysterious event known as The Shattering, players explore a small hub-centered region to discover Charms that fundamentally change how they fight, survive, and progress.
Rather than relying on experience points or traditional skill trees, progression is driven by experimentation, discovery, and an economy-gated upgrade loop. Understanding how Charms interact becomes the primary path to survival and advancement, reinforcing both the narrative and the gameplay.
How do you encourage meaningful build variety in a short RPG prototype?
Most action RPGs rely on deep skill trees that take hours to fully unfold. For a 20–30 minute vertical slice, that approach often results in shallow or unfinished progression.
My core challenge was to design a system that encourages experimentation immediately, makes player choices feel distinct, and rewards curiosity over raw stats. The solution became a modular Charm system combined with an economy-gated progression loop.
Combat variety is driven by Charm loadouts rather than class selection.
The economy loop ties combat directly to progression.
The Hub-and-Spoke design required clear visual distinctness between the safe "Market" and the dangerous "Wilds." I mapped these transitions on paper to verify travel times before building the environment.
Translating the "Safe Zone" concept from a 2D topology sketch to the final warm-lit hub area.
The world is built on a "Pacing Loop" of Safety → Tension → Relief.
I structured the map around a central Market Hub connected to distinct "Spoke" zones. This layout serves two purposes: it allows players to choose their own difficulty path, and it creates a psychological "return to safety" after every expedition.
Navigation is guided by lighting rather than UI markers. The Hub is bathed in warm, inviting orange tones (Safety). As players cross the threshold into a Spoke, the palette shifts immediately to cold blues and sickly purples (Danger). This visual shift acts as a subconscious warning system for the player.
Top-down view showing the Central Market Hub connecting to the Farm, Cave, and Temple.
Crossing the threshold: Lighting shifts communicate the transition from the Safe Hub to the Dangerous Spokes.
Traditional RPG skill trees were replaced with a modular Dual-Slot Charm system that rewards active discovery over passive leveling.
Drag-and-drop inventory enabling real-time build swapping.
Spending Jewels at the Shrine to bypass the hard progression gate.
The Problem: In short prototypes, players often sprint past side content directly to the boss, ignoring the core combat loops.
The Solution: I implemented a hard economy gate. The final boss is 100% immune to the starting weapon. Players must Purify their sword at Shrines, costing Jewels that drop exclusively from side-content enemies and chests.
The Result: Loot gains immediate meaning, combat feeds progression directly, and exploration becomes mandatory rather than optional.
Enemies are designed to teach combat mechanics organically through their behavior patterns.
The Result: The AI severely punishes passive play, forcing players to constantly adapt their positioning and Charm loadouts mid-fight.
The Guardian AI switching phases dynamically.
Unedited footage demonstrating the complete Core Loop: Exploring the Hub, traveling to a Spoke zone, combat with Charm abilities, and the final Boss encounter.
Comprehensive technical documents covering system mechanics and level design.
These documents are designed for quick skimming, focused on systems architecture, economy balancing, and spatial flow.
Deep dive into the Charm Matrix logic, narrative branching structures, and core progression.
Detailed breakdown of the Hub-and-Spoke layout, encounter pacing curves, and blocked-out map flows.
Raw balancing tables covering the Purification Economy, weapon scaling, and Jewel drop rates.
Before entering the engine, every system—from the Charm Matrix to the Economy Flow—was iterated on paper. These sketches document the logic behind the mechanics.
