Subsume is a short, atmospheric deep-sea exploration game about trust, betrayal, and the haunting pursuit of truth.

A year ago, your closest friend and research partner took the only working prototype of your shared invention—the EvoAdaptive SymbioSub—on a solo mission and vanished beneath the waves.

Fueled by loss and unanswered questions, you’ve rebuilt the vessel alone.

Now, it’s your turn to dive deep and uncover what really happened. Explore the ocean’s eerie silence, collect floating cassette logs, and piece together the emotional unraveling of a friendship lost to ambition.

Will you find answers in the deep...

or something else entirely?

Case Study: Subsume

Project Overview

Subsume is a moody, atmospheric game about deep-sea exploration, resource management, and the emotional journey of uncovering the fate of a lost friend—told one cassette tape at a time. Built under the intense 72-hour deadline of the Ludum Dare game jam, the game focused on discovery, upgrades, and storytelling through environmental design and audio logs.

This was a fast-paced and incredibly rewarding project created by a six-person team: 3 developers, 1 narrative writer, 1 sound designer, and myself as the art director and visual designer.

My Role

• Art Direction & Game Asset Design: I was responsible for the entire visual language of the game—from UI elements to in-game environments and character upgrades.

• Level Design: I helped design the flow of the game world, creating assets with both vector and raster tools while learning to balance visual complexity and clarity.

• Color System Planning: I developed a purposeful color system to ensure the game's visuals were accessible, intuitive, and easy to interact with.

• Branding & Marketing: I created all branding and promotional assets to give the game a distinct identity and presence beyond the jam.

Design Process

Conceptualization:

As soon as the theme for Ludum Dare was revealed - “Depths”, we brainstormed ideas that could be realistically explored in a short span of 3 days. We landed on a fun, introspective sci-fi underwater journey with narrative elements delivered via environmental clues.

Art Style Development:

From the beginning, I knew the art needed to evoke mood and clarity. I designed a hand-drawn asset system using strong expressive line-work and a minimal but expressive palette to help guide players visually. Accessibility and aesthetic harmony were top priorities. We decided to go with a full on hand-drawn asset creation process with no AI assets so that we’d be eligible for the Ludum Dare Graphics category.

Game Asset Production:

Every visual element—backgrounds, upgrade systems, UI, and player ship—was custom-made to reflect the evolving journey. As the ship upgraded, I ensured the visuals reflected narrative progression with subtle but impactful changes.

Level & Gameplay Support:

I worked closely with developers to iterate on the feel of each level and how visual cues could guide exploration. We refined how environmental design could support the player’s sense of progression and discovery.

Narrative & UX Integration:

The game’s emotional beats were tied to narrative progress and some of the vital moments in the game that had major reveals.

This involved working with the devs to plan our camera panning, movement and asset curation to map and connect with these pivotal game moments.

Outcomes

Positive Player Reception:

Subsume received an overwhelmingly warm response from players, especially for its atmosphere and art direction. Some of the feedback we received:

• “Such a cute premise for the game, the graphics are really slick too.”

• “Awesome atmosphere. Seeing the ship evolve and building up resources for the next leg of the journey was great fun. Feels a bit overwhelming at first with all the information but turned out being very intuitive to play and explore.”

Personal & Team Growth:

• Learned hands-on about rapid visual asset creation and iterative level design under tight time constraints.

• Deepened my understanding of art direction in the context of gameplay, player feedback, and accessibility.

• Fast paced collaboration with a cross-functional team under a high-pressure deadline—and had a blast doing it.