Grim's Coffin

Elevator Pitch: In Grim’s Coffin, you play as the Grim Reaper, who, after a shocking revelation, must find lost spirits and cut down terrible foes while coming to terms with their true nature.

Extended Description: You control Grim, whose sole purpose in the Underworld is to shepherd spirits to the King of the Underworld through a realm known as The Drift. After making a shocking revelation, Grim’s world is turned upside down and he must deal with his own grief while trying to guide the spirits he is responsible for. As you navigate through The Drift, you’ll encounter various foes trying to devour lost spirits. Use your scythe to cut them down, protect the lost spirits, and gain powerful new abilities, as you seek to understand your true purpose in the Underworld.

I worked on Grim's Coffin as part of a team of five core students and many external contributors during Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 at Rochester Institute of Technology as part of my graduate capstone project. I worked mainly as the team's artist, technical artist, and backup programmer.

My primary contributions:

• Created and implemented pixel art assets for characters, environments, and UI elements, establishing a cohesive visual style for the game. Note: Not all assets featured in the game are owned by me or our external artists. Some assets (like enemies and bosses) were sourced from free and paid asset packs to fill gaps in our art production pipeline. Credits for these assets are found at the end of the game.
• Managed an experienced external artist to help produce high-quality art assets. This involved providing expectations, feedback, ensuring timely delivery of assets, tracking hours, and coordinating payment.
• Worked with RIT professor David Sanchez to enlist the help of talented undergraduate students to create animated pixel art assets for the game. Not all assets produced were used, but every student was granted credit for their work.
• Assisted in programming gameplay mechanics and systems using Unity and C#, distributing workload and ensuring smooth development progress during stressful periods.

If you wish to see my independent research into procedural pixel-art cloth animations in Aseprite, which I worked on alongside Grim's Coffin as part of my capstone, here it is! Apologies for the poor audio quality.