WARRIORS OF THE UNDERWORLD
Art Direction, UI/UX Design, 2D Illustration and Branding
Warriors of the Underworld is a mobile game developed and published by Reveloot Games. Players traverse through various dungeons, battling enemies and descending down multiple levels in order to collect crystals that can be exchanged for better equipment. Along the way the player may come upon random items and encounters that could either aid or hinder their journey.
I was the art director, UI/UX designer and lead illustrator for this game, and worked closely with Reveloot partners head Dan Martinelli and Aaron Van Blarcom to design this game.
Interface Design
Warriors of the Underworld was conceived as an homage to classic MUD-style dungeon crawling games, where players explore the world room-by-room on a grid map. Dungeon layouts are arranged differently every time you play, adding a Roguelike element to the game. Players view and interact with the environment through a first person view of each room, similar to old-school RPGs like Dragon Quest and Shadowgate.
Designing the game for mobile platforms, the team and I wanted the game to be easily playable with just one hand. Players navigate from room to room by tapping the on-screen map, and more of the dungeon floor is revealed on the map as more rooms are explored. Some rooms will contain treasure, puzzles, or enemies that players can interact with by tapping them in the first person view window.
Inspired by the medieval fantasy setting, I designed the game’s user interface to resemble a scroll of parchment, with UI elements like the interactive map and heads-up display (HUD) illustrated to appear like they were scribed in ink. The UI went through multiple iterations throughout the game’s development lifecycle, with early versions utilizing a lot of containers and frames, which were later removed in favor of a more streamlined, de-cluttered layout.
Early navigation UI prototype
Scrapped tabbed window design
Background Art
In addition to the UI design, I took initiative on designing the background artwork for the three different worlds included in the base game: murky caves, scorching hellscapes, and arctic caverns. To get more variety of scenes in a particular environment with fewer art assets, each background was designed to be mirrored and randomly interchangeable regardless of the player’s navigation options.
Branding & Market Assets
Lastly, I was responsible for the games branding and promotional media, including the title artwork, a launch trailer, and various digital assets. My approach for this phase was to digitally paint a key visual to communicate the premise and tone of the game, one that could be utilized in multiple cases for promotional purposes. For this I envisioned a scene showing several lone warriors descending down isolated dark stairways, unknown to them what awaits below. The final illustration was partly inspired by the Bridge of Khazad-dûm scene from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
The final KV was well received by the development team, and was adapted for the game’s splash screen as well as the title graphic used for the app store listing. I also produced the games launch trailer which leveraged the KV artwork as well.
Title artwork base
Google Play release launch trailer
Google Play Store key visual
Release & Postmortem
Warriors of the Underworld was released by Reveloot Games on the Google Play Store, and received positive reviews for its simple, addictive gameplay and its retro look and feel. This was the team’s first major release on the Google Play platform, and so we learned a lot about working within the Android architecture and getting an app published on the Play Store.
Additional features for the game were planned, including user registration, multiplayer interactivity, and additional worlds to be sold as microtransactions, but these plans were ultimately abandoned due to time and budget constraints. However, a follow-up game is currently in development with a planned release in 2027.
All images and media © Reveloot LLC.