Dark Storm Rising

You're a spellcasting treasure hunter attempting to escape a dungeon while fighting off dark spirits with an expanding arsenal of lightning-themed abilities.  This is a short, first-person action game that takes place in a single level, lasting 3-5 minutes of playtime.  

Dark Storm Rising is an exercise in designing and implementing a full play experience, with its own mechanics conveyance, tutorialization, environmental storytelling arc and gameplay pacing within a short development period.

The game's unique mechanics implementation, visual effects work, and level design are original creations.  Static meshes and audio are from external royalty-free sources.  

Dark Storm Rising was built in Unreal Engine 4 as a solo project in 15 hours.

I'd love to get your feedback after you play - I'm always trying to improve my level design.  If you'd like, you can look at my portfolio at LevelsByJohn.com where you can see some of the design analysis and implementation processes used for Dark Storm Rising.