rooted together
Rooted Together: the Game
Rooted Together is a 3D adventure / visual novel game that I took from first concept to a finished, playable build. You are displaced from your home village and must travel to find a new village to live in. You find the village “Mossly” at the end of your long journey. The creatures there live in a friendly and peaceful society based on bartering and foraging. It seems nice but the villagers don't trust you yet. You must build relationships with Mossly’s villagers to move in!
Role: Solo developer and artist
Timeline: Concept and art, Fall 2024 · Game development, Spring 2025
Tools: Maya, Blender, Substance Painter, Unreal Engine, Photoshop, Procreate
Phase 1: Concept & Art (Fall 2024)
I started by developing the world and its visual identity. I wanted to create a cozy game that revolved around building relationships and finding community. I took artstyle inspiration from the Moonlighter’s key art and setting inspiration from Genshin Impact’s Aranara region. The name, “Rooted Together”, references how the main character must build roots in their new community. I created the key art and splash art to establish the look and tone before building anything in a game engine.
Hero Asset
Mossly’s tree is the centerpiece of the world and is especially important as it would set the visual tone for the rest of the scene. I wanted it to provide protection, nourishment, and cultural significance to the village people. I sculpted and textured it in Autodesk Maya.
Character Study
Murray is the village leader and primary caretaker of the tree. I wanted the creatures of Mossly to be approachable and friendly-looking so I used rounded shapes with large eyes. The character study is also where I could explore more of Mossly’s culture. They are very connected to nature, especially their tree, and I wanted Murray’s design to reflect that.
Inspiration
Object Sheet: Hero Asset
Character Sheet: Murray
Item Sheet: Murray's Amulet
Character Iterations: Murray
Shape Exploration: Murray
Phase 2: Building the Game (Spring 2025)
In the spring, I brought the world into Unreal Engine and built it into a playable game. I modeled the characters in Maya and copied them to Blender to texture them. I rigged them and animated their idle and walk animations in Maya then imported the rigged models and animations to Unreal. For the dialogue systems, I illustrated character cards in Procreate then imported them to Unreal.
Challenges & Takeaways
The biggest challenge was figuring out how to rig my character models and have them import correctly into Unreal. The standard workflow was not working and I had to troubleshoot for a long time to figure out why all the little bugs were happening and how to work around them. For example, the skeletons and animations would look great in Maya, but would import to Unreal upside down or the skeleton would be larger than the model. I also figured out the correct workflow, but then forgot it by the next work session. I learned the importance of documenting my processes and being flexible with troubleshooting.
Gameplay Screenshot: Dialogue
Gameplay Screenshot: Scene