TINA HA

Dawn of the Witch

Generalist Programmer

UI Designer & Programmer

Gameplay Programmer

VFX Artist

Overview

Dawn of the Witch is a single-player, narrative puzzle game developed as a vertical slice within a 10-weeks-long university course. Exploring the thematic of witch hunts in the Middle Ages, the game follows the story of Eleonore, a humble farmer that one day learns that her close friend has gone missing. As Eleonore, investigate the monastery, use magic and solve puzzles to discover the truth behind the mysterious disappearance of your friend and save her. The game has been presented during Gotland Game Conference 2025 and received the honour of winning the Public Vote Award.

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Overview

Details

Time:

March-June, 2025

Team Size:

Platform:

Windows, PC

Engine:

Unreal Engine 5

Check out the game!

Contribution

As a generalist programmer and UI designer, during the production of Dawn of the Witch I was responsible for:

handling game’s 3C’s (Camera, Controls, Character)

scripting a laser-based light puzzle using raycasts

designing and implementing diegetic UI (magic medallion projection, grimmoire) and in-game interactions (e.g. tutorial)

building a system for magic spells, clue collecting and tutorial pop-ups

implementing the basic mechanics and other game elements

creating custom visual effects (VFX)

Highlights

Magic Medallion

Grimmoire & Clues

Raycast-based light puzzle

Grimmoire & Clues

Central to our game was the clue and grimoire system, since it’s where players can review collected story clues and the rune combinations they’ve discovered.

Like the rest of the UI in the game, the grimoire was designed to be diegetic. It’s built around a 3D model of an open book, with pages driven by procedurally edited materials rather than traditional UI widgets. Page flipping was also handled procedurally using timelines instead of pre-made animations, which gave more control over pacing and responsiveness.

This setup helped keep the system consistent with the game’s overall aesthetic, while still being flexible enough to support new entries as the player progressed.

Magic Medallion

Grimmoire & Clues

Raycast-based light puzzle

Grimmoire & Clues

Central to our game was the clue and grimoire system, since it’s where players can review collected story clues and the rune combinations they’ve discovered.

This setup helped keep the system consistent with the game’s overall aesthetic, while still being flexible enough to support new entries as the player progressed.

Magic Medallion

Grimmoire & Clues

Raycast-based light puzzle

Grimmoire & Clues

Central to our game was the clue and grimoire system, since it’s where players can review collected story clues and the rune combinations they’ve discovered.

This setup helped keep the system consistent with the game’s overall aesthetic, while still being flexible enough to support new entries as the player progressed.

Takeaways

Dawn of the Witch has been my personal highlight project so far that I have worked on, mainly due to the amount of new knowledge I gained (cool diegetic UI!!!), the challenge that came with learning a new engine (UE5) and intricacies of making a story-driven game. The course I was doing DotW for was only 10 weeks, but I have several ideas for what I could potentially improve one day. Moreover, I had a great time working with my team in a “indie studio” structure facilitated by the course, which is something I’ll remember for a long time!