Harvest of Names
Story-Rich RPG
Gameplay Programmer
Jun 2025 – Sep 2025
Tools Used:
Unity, Git
THE PROJECT
Harvest of Names is a narrative-driven RPG currently in production by Servellina, that focuses on how one’s identity and self are constructed. The game follows Io, a student at a university in the United Kingdom, as she navigates her life as a student, encounters mythological creatures, and discovers her identity. The project is still in-development and is being directed by Seva Khusid; more information about the project can be found on his website or on the Harvest of Names Bluesky profile.
I worked on Harvest of Names for 3 months as a gameplay programmer, mostly focused on the combat system with some contribution to tutorials and the day/weather cycle. When I began work on the project, the combat system was in a very early prototype state, resembling the combat of a 2D fighting game. As the team worked on redesigning the combat system, I transformed it into a polished 3D turn-based combat system that incorporates dodges, parries, and directional attacks. I implemented class architecture for combat-related systems such as attacks, projectiles, and status effects, enabling the game designers to work in-engine on creating content for the game. I also developed the entire combat tutorial and all the special logic associated with it.
I revamped Harvest of Names’ combat system from a prototype 2D fighter style to 3D turn-based combat with directional attacks.
THE PROCESS
I worked on a variety of different combat-related tasks over the course of my 3 months on the project, gradually transitioning it out of its 2D realtime state and into a 3D turn-based state. The rough progression of my contributions to the combat system involved:
Implementing a turn queue, logic for passing control to combat actors on a turn, and progressing between different combat states.
Giving actors the ability to receive attacks, either countering them or being hit by them depending on timing- and direction-based inputs.
Creating classes and handling logic for different kinds of attacks, e.g. melee or projectile.
Support for executing non-damaging actions in combat, including items, negotiating, and switching out abilities on the player’s IDEAL.
Implementing combat actor movement and animation within the scene.
Establishing combat tutorial flow and creating custom logic for handling tutorial state.
Lots and lots of bug fixing!
In addition to writing code and working on the game directly in Unity, I created several important technical documents and proposals for members of other teams, including:
Full class documentation for all combat-related classes: combat actors, player controller, combat manager, abilities, hits, projectiles, enemy AI manager.
Technical proposal for custom ability logic implementation.
Diagram of combat tutorial flow, with all variables and references represented.
Updates to the main game design document based on changes to combat.
I implemented the combat tutorial flow, including which extra states needed to be tracked and when to interrupt gameplay with tutorial messages.
On top of programming and refining gameplay systems, I also documented them thoroughly with Miro boards and Google Docs explaining class architecture and gameplay flow.
THE RESULT
While I only had the opportunity to contribute to a portion of Harvest of Names, the combat systems I worked on developed a much stronger sense of gameplay identity, serving as a foundation for the rest of the game’s design process. From a personal perspective, this project gave me the opportunity to gain more experience working on large-scale gameplay systems and building scalable architecture to support future design decisions. There was a lot of cross-disciplinary collaboration with other teams, as I worked through the implementation of combat as it was still being redesigned and had many technical discussions with designers about what sort of systems would best support their creative vision. Overall, my work on this game helped grow both the game and myself significantly, I’m honored to have contributed to such a passionate, creative project, and I’m super excited to see where Harvest of Names ends up!
I revamped Harvest of Names’ combat system from a prototype 2D fighter style to 3D turn-based combat with directional attacks.