Hero of Ember Vale

Inspiration

Classic JRPGs like Final Fantasy and Pokémon inspired us to create a compact yet complete RPG experience. We wanted to capture that nostalgic feeling of being a young hero setting out to save the world/

What it does

Hero of Ember Vale is a pixel-art RPG where you collect elemental spirits, battle enemies in turn-based combat, and ultimately face the Demon King to save your hometown. The game features overworld exploration across forests, caves, mountains and volcanoes, a spirit-catching minigame, party management.

How we built it

Built using Phaser.js for the game engine and React for UI components, with TypeScript providing type safety throughout. The game uses a scene-based architecture with dedicated scenes for battles, overworld exploration, and special encounters. We implemented a tile-based map system for world generation, a turn-based battle system with elemental type advantages, and a save system using browser localStorage. The pixel art aesthetic is achieved through careful sprite scaling and retro-styled UI elements.

Challenges we ran into

Balancing the difficulty curve was tricky, we wanted the Demon King battle to feel challenging but not impossible. The treasure room's combined spirit attack system required complex damage calculations to ensure all spirits contributed meaningfully. Managing game state between scenes while keeping the code maintainable was another challenge. We also had fun bugs like the lunch boost not activating properly in the treasure room, which we fixed through careful debugging.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The Mom's Lunch mechanic turned out perfectly - it's both mechanically interesting (5x damage boost!) and emotionally resonant. The parents' proud dialogue when you return home after defeating the True Demon King adds genuine heart to the game. Successfully implementing 9 unique spirits with different types and abilities, plus the epic combined attack sequence in the treasure room where all spirits attack together, created the climactic finale we envisioned.

What we learned

Small touches make big differences - having your parents give special dialogue after victory transforms a simple RPG into an emotional journey. Balancing humor with genuine gameplay is powerful/ Building incrementally and testing frequently helped us catch issues like the type errors that broke the build. Sometimes the best features come from happy accidents during development.

What's next for Hero of Ember Vale

Future updates could include more spirit varieties with unique abilities, additional zones to explore with new environmental challenges, multiplayer spirit battles where players can test their teams against each other, side quests that flesh out the world's lore, and perhaps revealing more about Water's construction empire and Knight's loyalty. We'd love to add voice acting for key moments, especially Mom's encouraging words when she saves you!

DEFEAT THE DEMON KING!

Built With

• aseprite
• css
• github
• howler
• html
• javascript
• parcel
• phaser.js
• piskel
• tiled
• vite