HARVEST — Slavic Village

Hi everyone!

I’d like to present my personal project — HARVEST, a first-person horror set in the world of Slavic mythology.

A knyaz’s envoy arrives at a small pagan village with his retinue, trying to convert locals to the new faith. At first, nothing seems out of the ordinary — the village elder appears kind and open for negotiations. But after an unfortunate incident, the villagers’ curiosity turns into a desire to get rid of the unwanted guests. The protagonist manages to survive… but the villagers’ anger is only the beginning of what he’ll face.

This is a project by my indie studio Noble Rot. For now, we’re working on the demo in our free time, purely on initiative and passion.

The game is being developed in Unreal Engine 5, using Nanite, Lumen, and Metahuman.

I’m handling the art direction and creating all the visuals solo: 3D models, environment, lighting, materials, particles, and post-processing. I’m also doing level design and cutscenes.

The screenshots you see are from the demo location — a pagan village at night. My goal was to create a technically advanced image with artistic realism: combining beauty with eerie atmosphere, like a horror movie. I drew inspiration from visually striking films and games with strong visual storytelling.

I also aimed to find a balance between historical authenticity and artistic expression — to show the life of 10th-century pagans while keeping it visually compelling. The result is a carefully crafted blue-green-orange color palette, high-quality models and textures that together deliver a powerful visual experience. Of course, it wasn’t easy — there were many iterations and experiments along the way. But I’m happy with the result.

I started building the location with level design — first came the layout, then the blockout in-engine, followed by detailed work.

Most of the models I made myself using 3D modeling and sculpting tools. I also used assets from Quixel, heavily tweaking them to fit the project’s style. Vegetation comes from a purchased asset pack.

Working on this project helped me greatly improve my skills in UE. I’ve mastered the material system by creating several smart materials for quick and flexible texture setups. I’ve also learned Niagara and started using Houdini for particle simulations and alembic animations.

I’m really proud of what I’ve achieved so far. Hope you enjoy it too. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!