CASE STUDY · HEROIC SPIRIT GAMES
From Misfortune Comes
A year and a half across design, narrative and production.
An open-world life-simulation RPG where I worked across game design, NPC systems, worldbuilding, UI, audio and QA, mostly through Unreal Engine's visual scripting workflows.
Steam listing: De la desgracia nace
ROLE
Game design, narrative & in-engine implementation
STUDIO
Heroic Spirit Games
DURATION
Approx. 1.5 years
ENGINE
Unreal Engine
ABOUT THE GAME
Everyday life meets the supernatural.
From Misfortune Comes is an open-world life-simulation RPG developed by Heroic Spirit Games. It combines everyday life, social relationships, character progression and supernatural exploration in a connected world.
I worked on the project for approximately one and a half years, contributing to missions and minigames, NPC behavior and dialogue, concept development, UI, audio and promotional content.
Open world
Life simulation
RPG
Supernatural exploration
MY CONTRIBUTIONS
Six disciplines, one project.
Small team, wide scope. These are the areas where I designed, implemented, configured and tested.
01
Game Design & Gameplay
Minigame design and balancing.
Mission implementation.
Project testing and feedback to the development team.
02
Narrative Design & NPC Systems
Casual NPC dialogue and branching narrative dialogue trees.
Conversations between school NPCs.
NPC appearances, characteristics and functions.
Animations, daily routines, spawners and city navigation.
DEEP DIVE BELOW ↓
03
Worldbuilding & Visual Development
Concepts for different city areas.
AI-assisted concept art for the dungeon, city and school environments.
Modification of environmental structures and objects.
AI-assisted item icon generation.
04
UI Design & Animation
UI design and creation for menus, minigames and HUD elements.
Visual assets through manual and AI-assisted workflows.
Importing and integrating clothing and animation assets.
NPC animation implementation.
Animation work using motion capture.
05
Audio Implementation
Sound implementation and overall audio balancing.
AI-generated dialogue audio.
06
QA & Promotional Content
Gameplay recording.
Promotional GIFs for the Steam store page.
Project testing and feedback.
NPCs & WORLD SYSTEMS
A city that runs on its own schedule.
Narrative, behavior and navigation had to work together. This is where writing, configuration and world layout met, so that NPCs could talk, look, move and live across the city.
01
Write & implement
Casual NPC dialogue and branching dialogue trees, plus written conversations between school NPCs.
02
Define who they are
Appearances, characteristics and functions configured for each NPC.
03
Give them a rhythm
NPC animations and daily routines that carry each character through their day.
04
Fill & connect the city
Spawners configured and balanced across the city, linked by interconnected navigation nodes so NPCs can move through the environment.
Dialogue →
Appearance →
Animation →
Routines →
Spawners →
Navigation nodes
BRANCHING DIALOGUE TREE · UNREAL ENGINE
CITY NAVIGATION NODES · NPC SPAWNERS
SELECTED WORK
The project, piece by piece.
Key art from the Steam page, plus samples from across the disciplines above.
OFFICIAL KEY ART
STEAM CAPSULE
ADD IMAGE
UI, menus and HUD
ADD IMAGE
Concept art: dungeon, city, school
ADD IMAGE
Item icons
IN MOTION
The game, in motion.
A generated trailer for the game, plus short captures of the character, the dungeon and the minigames.
GENERATED TRAILER
WALKING
TALKING TO AN NPC
DUNGEON & COMBAT
MINIGAMES
TECHNICAL WORKFLOW
Built through Unreal Engine's visual workflows.
Unreal Engine was my main environment on the project. I worked through its visual scripting and configuration tools, supported by a set of creative and production tools.
SCOPE OF MY TECHNICAL WORK
My work in Unreal Engine centers on visual scripting, node configuration and in-engine implementation. I configured and adapted systems, with limited changes to existing programming nodes, rather than developing complex systems from scratch.
UNREAL ENGINE · MAIN DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT
Node-based workflows
Dialogue trees
Data tables
Variable configuration
Blueprint configuration
Smart Objects
World-placed nodes
Limited edits to existing programming nodes
OTHER TOOLS
Adobe Photoshop
Minigames Design Layouts, UI, icons, image editing, promotional artwork and GIF creation.
ElevenLabs, Leonardo IA & ChatGPT
AI-assisted audio, visual development and creative production.
Character Creator
Character-related workflows, clothing and animation assets.
CLOSING NOTES
Many disciplines. One world.
Working on From Misfortune Comes meant moving between design, writing, implementation, visuals, audio and production on a single project. That range is what I bring to a team: an understanding of how the pieces connect, and the willingness to step in wherever the game needs work.
Heroic Spirit Games · Steam listing: De la desgracia nace