Exile’s Grave

Ian Su
Exile’s Grave is a top-down action adventure game I’ve been working on for the past
couple months. There’s a lot of things I wish I could go back to work on, avenues to
explore, and ideas to flesh out, but all in all this project was a great learning
experience for me.

Exile’s Grave takes place in high fantasy desert nation called Kharut. The current
government enforces a puritanical society where the “undesirables” of society are
heavily persecuted, whether it’s criminals, heathens, or the physically incapable. The
“Abyss” is a bottomless hole in the heart of the nation that is used as a sacrifical pit
where these undesirables of society are sent to die to appease the gods.

Exile’s Grave 3
 The Arsonist 5
The Assassin 11
The Leper 21
The Necromancer 29
The Warlord 35
Bonus Content 42

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 The Arsonist
An avid supporter of anarcho-
communism, En was caught escaping
from a giant bonfire he “accidentally”
created in the governmental
intelligence center of Kharut.

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Exile’s Grave 7
 Napalm Flask - Drenches the
enemy in sticky napalm, slowing
their movement speed. If they take
any damage during this duration,
the slow debuff is removed and
they are instantly set aflame,
taking damage.

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Ignite Shiv - The Arsonist’s
engulfs his blade in magical
fire, causing all his attacks
to deal bonus magic damage,
as well as stripping away at
the target’s magic resistance.

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Blast Off! - The Arsonist drops
all his explosives in a getaway
attempt. This deals huge magic
damage in a radius around him
as well as knocking back
enemies away for a short
distance. The Arsonist himself
takes half the damage dealt.

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 The Assassin
A foreigner from a lineage of
royal assassins, Nawara failed to
take the life of the current king of
Kharut, and has been sentenced to
death in the abyss. However, the
conditions of the bottomless pit
pale in comparison to her training
back at home...

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Early sketches exploring how her shivs would materialize from smoke

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 an idea for an incense shaped gauntlet.
smoke could trail behind every swing

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The Assassin’s Shivs materialize out
of the magical smoke that
emanates from her incense holder.

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 Some earlier painting
tests before the final
color scheme and
design was pinned down
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I eventually changed her hair
to white for a stronger value
read, directing more focus to
her head

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18 Exile’s Grave
One with the Shadows - The Assassin throws
down her incense device, creating a thick
cloud of smoke around her. Within this area,
the assassin cannot be attacked and has
maximum movement speed. Once the Assassin
moves outside the spell area, the spell ends.

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 Running on Fumes - The
Assassin kicks her incense
holder in a chosen
direction. She escapes
into the holder while it is
still flying in the air, and
is invulnerable in that
state.

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 The Leper
A nameless man afflicted with a
demon’s plague, The Leper was exiled
to quarantine the curse once it
spread across his body so much that
it was unable to hide in public.

22 Exile’s Grave
Exile’s Grave 23
 Trying out different broadsword hilts and
exploring what his infected arm could look like

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Pestilent Spikes - The Leper unleashes
fragments of his arm into a cone in
front of him. Affected units take
minor damage and receive and
amplified magic damage debuff.

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Petrification -
Afflicts a curse upon
the enemy, the target
is slowed over 4
seconds, and then
the target is stunned
for 2 seconds.

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Exile’s Grave 27
Demon Within - The Leper
unleashes the demonic being
inside of him. He gains enormous
attack and movement speed that
decays over 8 seconds, but takes
bonus damage. The Leper dies in
this second form when this
duration ends.

If the Leper kills an enemy hero

before the duration ends, he
reverts back into his original
form with full health and mana.

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The Necromancer
Karik began studying necromancy in
hopes of resurrecting his dead wife. As
dark magic is illegal in Kharut, he was
found practicing in his house one day
and was banished into the abyss. He
carries his wife’s skeletal remains in
a basket. Also his wife was an ogre.

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Exile’s Grave 31
Rupture - Targeted
unit (enemy or allied)
instantly dies. A
portion of it’s max
health is dealt as
damage to enemies
around it.

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Exile’s Grave 33
 Kindred Spirit - The
Necromancer funnels his life
energy into his wife’s skeletal
remains, who is much
stronger physically than
him. This spell costs 30% of
max health to cast.

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 The Warlord
A warlord from a foreign nation, Harash
once commanded armies with an iron fist.
Once Kharut gained control over his
country, he was promptly convicted of
numerous war crimes, and removed to
prevent an insurgency from rising up.

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Exile’s Grave 37
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Whack a Mole - The Warlord’s
Axe glows, and his next attack
deals bonus damage and
cleaves in a area of effect in
front of him

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Kill Notches - Everytime
the Warlord kills
another unit, one of his
tattoos glows up and he
gains bonus armor for
60 seconds.

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Bonus Content
 A fun piece of promotional art / marketing poster. I don’t
normally do big scale illustrations like this so it was a
challenge for me to make all five characters read properly.

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A mockup of what I imagine the game to look like.
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Thanks for looking!

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art by ian su
spring 2018
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