Njord’s Embrace (Demo)

My Role: Lead Programmer
Time on project: .5 years (winter 2024 – spring 2025)
Average team size: 5 people
Available At: Unreleased
Platform: Windows
Input: Keyboard + Mouse
Engine: Unity 3D

Main Contributions:

  • Game Framework:
    • Developed and implemented our custom turn based combat package.
    • Refined companion follow logic.
  • Animations:
    • Worked on character IK both feet and head orientation.
  • UI:
    • Implemented functionality and graphical elements for combat and the character sheet.

Theme and Gameplay:

It is midsummer and a wedding has just gone sour for Olaf, our protagonist and father to the bride. Olaf is a vassal to the mean-spirited Jarl, Mord Valgardsson who covet Oluf’s daughter, Unn, and brings the wedding to a bloody end. Olaf and his kin board a ship to make their escape.

Njord’s Embrace was a demo for a small RPG style game. The game consists of three different phases, sailing, exploration and combat.

When sailing the boat the player can move about the map and look for flotsam, locations or switch to an exploration of their boat. Here the player can interact with their companions to gain more quests and story bits. Entering a map location the player can walk around, talk to NPCs, find loot, obtain quests for them to embark on, and get into combat encounters.

Combat plays like a traditional turn-based tactics game. Each character has movement- and action points, and these points are used to move around and trigger combat actions, such as attack, heal, push, etc. Njord’s Embrace combat had a focus on aoe effects and a shielding mechanic.