Behind the Scenes of Sunderfolk: UI, Engineering, and Tech Art in Unity

If you’ve played Sunderfolk, you’ve probably noticed how polished and unique it feels. Maybe you’ve even wondered how much thought went into every little detail.

Sunderfolk is a Unity tactical RPG developed by Dreamhaven. It features turn-based battles, cooperative gameplay, and a richly stylized underground world. Our team at Devoted Studios supported the project by working on core gameplay systems, UI, animation, shaders, and performance optimization.

We’re excited to share a full breakdown of the work our team contributed to Sunderfolk!

Project Overview

Tech Art – Shaders, VFX & World Visual Fidelity

Creating the visual tone of Sunderfolk meant balancing art direction with performance. We worked closely with the art team to build shaders and visual tools that would support the game’s painterly style, magical elements, and atmospheric lighting.

✨Custom Shader Framework

Sunderfolk has a painted, atmospheric look that feels different from most games. To help achieve that, we co-developed a custom stylized shader framework using Unity’s Shader Graph and HLSL.

Here’s what we built:

• Rim lighting and gradient mapping to add visual depth to characters and props
• Stylized water shaders with depth blending, foam, and reflections
• Depth-based fog for layering inside caves
• Edge outlining using SDF to help characters stand out in gameplay
• Glow shaders for crystals with animated emission and subtle distortion
• Tree leaf shaders that respond to wind using world-space vectors

The shader system was designed with performance in mind and exposed key artistic parameters for real-time tweaking by the art team.

✨ Dynamic Lighting Effects

We also supported building lightweight tools for in-game effects:

• Emissive material masking on spells and crystals
• GPU-friendly bloom and sparkle overlays for magic effects
• Volumetric light shafts used around the Heart Tree crystal, driven by vertex alpha
• Water rendering optimized for GPU performance

These effects helped make the world feel more dynamic and alive, while keeping everything running efficiently.

Engineering – NPCs, AI & Pathfinding

To bring Sunderfolk’s world to life and make sure it ran well across platforms, we focused on performance systems and gameplay logic that supported a smooth tactical experience in Unity.

✅ Rendering and Asset Optimization

We improved rendering efficiency by adjusting asset configurations and optimizing shader performance. This helped reduce GPU and CPU load while keeping visuals crisp.

✅ Resource and Memory Management

We completed passes to streamline resource usage, including mesh and texture optimizations. As a result, load times got faster and memory usage became more stable.

✅ Scene and UI Performance

To keep tactical UI responsive, we trimmed unnecessary scene elements and reduced overhead in UI rendering. This improved frame construction and kept the interface feeling snappy.

✅ System Logic Improvements

We refined internal systems to reduce CPU spikes and increase stability. These updates helped performance across platforms, especially during local co-op.

✅Platform Feature Integration

We supported platform-specific implementation and testing across consoles, making sure everything was functional and passed certification requirements.

✅ Lightweight NPC AI

While we didn’t create a full behavior system, we helped build a lightweight solution for NPCs to walk the levels using NavMeshAgents. Basic decision logic and event triggers powered ambient movement and simple interactions.

UI/UX – Multiplayer, Devices, and Battle Readability

To help players stay engaged and informed during combat, we supported the integration of clear and readable UI systems. The work focused on making the tactical interface intuitive, responsive, and optimized for performance.

Companion Device Integration

To support Sunderfolk’s couch co-op experience, we supported and helped with optimization on a companion UI system that allows mobile devices to act as player inputs.
Key elements included:

• Device pairing via local network discovery
• Dynamic class selection and sync (Bard, Berserker, Arcanist, Rogue)
• Spell management and card-based turn input
• Responsive layout for both portrait and landscape modes

Everything was built using Unity’s UI Toolkit. That gave us flexibility with styling and animation while keeping the interface lightweight and responsive.

Tools and Optimization

Behind every smooth game experience is a lot of behind-the-scenes problem-solving. We built tools to help the team test, fix, and improve the game’s performance across different platforms.

Streamlining the Build and Performance

Behind the visual polish and responsive gameplay, we built tools to help the team test, improve, and ship Sunderfolk smoothly across platforms. Performance and efficiency were key goals.

To support the porting and multi-platform optimization, we:

• Created batching tools for LOD generation and lightmap baking
• Implemented shader keyword stripping to reduce build size
• Completed shader optimization
• Profiled GPU/CPU spikes in high-density environments
• Built internal debugging tools for AI, NavMesh links, and event tracking

These systems helped make development faster and more efficient across all stages of the project. This kind of work fits into shader optimization Unity and supports Unity tactical RPG development best practices.

That’s a Wrap!

Our work on Sunderfolk focused on building systems that supported visuals, gameplay, and performance. From UI and animation to shaders and pathfinding, our goal was to make tools that helped the team move faster without giving up quality.

Want to check it out? Visit → https://www.dreamhaven.com/sunderfolk/announcing-sunderfolk