Solo Project
- Concept Design
- 3D Scene Art
- Level & System Mockup
- Thesis Project
Synopsis
In the future, a catastrophic celestial impact alters Earth’s rotation, leaving the planet tidally locked to the sun. Humanity now lives between two extreme realms:
The eternal Twilight Zone and the endless Night Zone.
The Twilight Zone remains suspended in perpetual sunset, its skies glowing in warm orange and red hues. Constant solar exposure creates higher temperatures, and cities rise along mountain ranges to harvest solar energy. New Lhasa stands as the region’s radiant core—towering skylines surrounded by high-tech farms and artificial ecosystems.
Beyond it lies the Night Zone, a frozen world of permanent darkness. Thick clouds and ice fog block out the stars, while snow and permafrost blanket the surface. Cities like New Yakutsk survive underground, powered by geothermal heat and linked by vast tunnel networks. Above ground, only frozen peaks and empty plateaus remain.
Bridging these two worlds is the Seebeck Supergrid—a colossal energy corridor and humanity’s greatest engineering feat. More than a power network, it serves as the sole artery for trade and cultural exchange
, with Seebeck bases scattered along its length, sustaining civilization across light and shadow.
Design Process
Brainstorming
What happens when the Earth stops rotating?
· Geostrophic forces disappear, ocean currents and monsoons disappear
· Half the Earth becomes hot while the other half freezes
· Meteorological and geological disasters
· The Moon destabilizes
· Earth’s magnetic field collapses
······
Concept 1: The Seebeck Supergrid
To Daylight Zone
The Seebeck Base —
To Night Zone
The Seebeck Supergrid is a revolutionary energy system that exploits the extreme temperature difference between the Night Zone and the Twilight Zone, generating power through the Seebeck effect. A chain of high-efficiency thermoelectric converters stretches across the planet, forming a global energy corridor from darkness to daylight.
More than a power network, the Supergrid serves as humanity’s lifeline between two radically divided worlds. Its pipelines and cables enable transportation and communication, while converter hubs have evolved into Seebeck bases—trading posts and rest stations scattered along its route. Like collective arteries, the Supergrid restores connection between the once-isolated Night and Twilight Zones, sustaining civilization across light and shadow.
Concept 2: City & Humanity
< New Lhasa >
To fully exploit the Twilight Zone’s natural advantages, vertical cities built along mountain ranges became the optimal solution.
The Himalayas gave rise to the world’s largest metropolis—New Lhasa, named after a sacred city of the old world once said to stand among towering peaks. Today, New Lhasa carries on this legacy, drawing millions of travelers from the Night Zone each day.
Its skyline climbs skyward, with monumental structures crowning the summits and smaller districts cascading downward. Sunlit slopes host dense urban cores, while shadowed sides sink into overcrowded slums. In this vertical megacity, survival is as unforgiving as the fading sunset.
Under perpetual daylight, solar-powered VTOL aircraft dominate transportation. Covered in high-efficiency solar panels, these streamlined vehicles weave freely between skyscrapers, enabling fluid movement through New Lhasa’s layered urban landscape.
< New Yakutsk >
The Night Zone is not a silent wasteland. In the face of perpetual darkness, humanity endures—and adapts. As the brightest stronghold of the Night Zone, New Yakutsk stands as proof of human resilience in extreme conditions.
Built above the region’s richest geothermal reserves, New Yakutsk has grown into the Night Zone’s largest city. Its structure extends deep underground, forming a multi-layered subterranean network that harnesses geothermal energy while shielding residents from the frozen surface.
At its core lies a massive geothermal power station, supplying heat and electricity and serving as a central hub for civic and cultural life. Shaped by hardship, the city’s inhabitants value collective cooperation and shared responsibility, honoring the sacrifices of those who first built the city.
With a thriving mining industry and abundant uranium resources, nuclear-powered aircraft have become the primary mode of transportation, enabling mobility across the frozen darkness.
Development Workflow
The Halted Earth is an indie game as well as my undergraduate thesis project. The development of the project was carried out in parallel with my academic research.
Engine: Unreal Engine 5
Programming: Unreal Blueprints
Art & Assets: PBR-based asset creation, Quixel Bridge scanned asset library, Unreal Marketplace
< Asset Creation >
< Environment Setup >
My environment workflow begins with whiteboxing to define spatial layout and player flow, followed by gameplay validation, art passes, lighting, and final polish.
Level Design
The extreme environments have led to a drastic diversification of human civilization, with some humans erecting towering skyscrapers in the Twilight Zone, while others have found ways to survive in the perpetual darkness of the Night Zone.
< Level Background >
The demo unfolds at a Seebeck base located between the Twilight Zone and the Night Zone.
Before the catastrophe, the protagonist—a cargo ship engineer—was in orbit, narrowly escaping the disaster. Fate intervened when his spacecraft was forced to crash-land in the wilderness. With no rescue in sight, he expended his remaining fuel to activate a hibernation pod, entering suspended animation.
Decades later, as the ship’s power finally depletes, he awakens alone in a transformed world.
< Level Walkthrough >
Playthrough Video
Step 1:
Players awaken from hibernation, struggle out of the crashed aircraft, and gaze upon an unfamiliar world carved by deep fissures. Realizing that decades have passed, they begin exploring.
Step 2:
The player follows the fissure into a shifting landscape that evolves from natural terrain to industrial structures, eventually reaching the massive Seebeck base. Along the way, they must manage resources to survive the cold, as core mechanics—hunger, health, and body temperature are introduced.
Step 3:
The player ascends through the Seebeck base, interacting with NPCs and completing staged tasks while uncovering its role as a critical power node. An approaching storm is revealed, triggering the main quest.
Step 4:
After securing basic supplies and surviving the cold, the player reaches the trade port, where the incoming storm forces them to repair and retrofit their aircraft for escape.
Here, three blueprints are obtained: the aircraft blueprint, New Yakutsk, and New Lhasa. The player must choose how to modify the aircraft—adapting to eternal night or perpetual twilight—and decide which city they align with. These choices determine the final destination.
Completing the aircraft blueprint and one city blueprint concludes the demo.