█ Solo project – Procedural Action-RPG | 2024

Technologies used

• Unity

• C#

• JSON (save system)

• Addressable Assets

• Scriptable Objects

• Dynamic cameras / Render Textures

Project vision

Aethernal Dungeon is a dungeon crawler inspired by Diablo and Dark Souls. The goal is to descend as deep as possible into an infinite, procedurally generated dungeon — but the only way out… is death. In this game, even dying is part of the progression.

Development process

The project was developed over two semesters, in four phases: prototype, alpha, beta, and gold. It reflects the culmination of my learning in gameplay systems design, object-oriented programming, and software architecture.

Key systems implemented

• Procedural dungeon: infinite floor generation

• Gravity system: the player slows down the deeper they go

• Scaling difficulty: enemies get stronger floor by floor

• Combat system: melee and ranged attacks

• Dynamic inventory: uses Unity’s Addressables to change character visuals based on equipment

• Loot system: custom algorithm based on cumulative probabilities (via ScriptableObjects)

• JSON-based save system: stores player name, inventory, gear, and highest level reached

• Minimap: secondary camera renders to a texture

• In-game tutorial

• Attributes, stats & level-up system

• Dynamic camera zoom when opening inventory

What I’m proud of

• Procedural dungeon: Several instructors told me it would be too hard to pull off — but I proved it was possible.

• Loot system: After struggling to find usable resources online, I built a robust loot system from scratch.

What I’d do differently

When I started, I lacked some key knowledge. I only learned about design patterns like State Machine and Event Manager halfway through the project. If I had known them earlier, I could have created more dynamic AI for the enemies.

In the future, I plan to refactor my entity system using a clean, modular architecture:

A generic EntityData script for base values

An EntityController to manage movement

A universal State Machine that can be attached to any entity