Original IP · 3D Action-Adventure · Game Design
A Grimbright fantasy where your voice is your weapon, your magic, and your burden.
Role
Game Designer · Technical Designer · IP CreatorGenre
3D Sound & Rhythm · Stealth · Action-AdventureArtist Contributions
Calista Lo - Celine Leng - Kevin Wang
Hero
Rasa - Chosen by fate
Regions
7 Discovered Locations
World
Innus - Grimbright Fantasy
Core Hook
Your voice is your weapon
The World
Innus ~ where sound built civilization and nearly destroyed it.
Four centuries ago, an event called The Shattering almost ended the world. Two magical voices, the Whisper and the Roar, were wielded without restraint, and civilization fractured under the weight of their power. The leaders of Innus responded by banning the voices entirely.
But banning a force doesn't erase it. The Whisper and the Roar still exist in the world, still ripple through the bodies of those who carry them, still tear rifts in the sky above a world trying to hold itself together.
Into this delicate time, Rasa is born. Chosen by fate to carry both voices, they must learn to align commotion into equilibrium, to become what the world needs before it shatters again.
The Magic System
Two voices. One cannot exist without the other.
The central duality of Shabda lives in its magic, two voices that are polar opposites, yet inseparably bound. The Whisper and the Roar are not just mechanics. They are philosophies, and the player must learn to wield both.
The Whisper
Voice of Positivity · Healing · Clarity
Master: The Eligh
A technique transforming the vibrational frequency of one's voice through meditative practice. The Whisper can heal, inspire, and bring clarity by liberating chaotic frequencies. Its cost: it can shorten the lifespan of those who wield it. A voice of sacrifice, offered willingly.
The Roar
Voice of Negativity · Control · Corruption
Master: The Qu'var
A technique amplifying negative inner emotions to control people against their will. The Roar brings an intense dopamine rush alongside bodily degradation, it corrupts and mutates those who use it. Power without limit, paid for in self-destruction.
How It Plays
Speak. And the world responds.
Shabda's defining mechanic is the player's literal voice. Using Vosk's speech-to-text API, the game listens to the player, converts sound into activated Yantra symbols, and compares those patterns against enemy profiles. The better the match, the stronger the effect. Your voice is power, and how you use it determines what kind you carry.
01
Explore
Move through Innus, reading the world and its hidden vibrational frequencies.
02
Sense
Activate Sensing Mode — squeeze both bumpers to heighten awareness and perceive the unseeable.
03
Calibrate
Sequence Yantra patterns in the Calibration Wheel through timed actions as a response to what you see.
04
Cast
Activate the mic, make sounds. The game listens, converts them to symbols, resolves the effect. Better match, stronger outcome.
Gameplay Pillars
Three pillars. One original experience.
Every mechanic in Shabda is filtered through one question: does it reinforce the fantasy of a world where sound is the least common design denominator? These three pillars answer it.
01
Vibrational Vessels
Measure the Unseeable
The Sensing Mode reveals the hidden frequency structure of the world, the Yantra patterns embedded in enemies, the vibrational architecture of environments, the unseen forces that respond to Shabda. The Calibration Wheel gives the player tools to interpret and act on what they perceive. Sensing is a way of knowing before acting.
02
Audible Combat
Fight by Vocalizing Sounds via Microphone
Players cast attacks by saying specific mantras into the microphone. A spatial sound system places the player at the center of a 360-degree radius, choosing which enemy to isolate and which frequency to match. Combat is intimate, embodied, and unlike anything in a conventional action-adventure.
03
Stealth Through Silence
Decibel Tracking
The game actively measures and listens to ambient sound in the game’s world and the player's microphone. Stealth requires genuine quiet, noise attracts enemies, alerts patrols, and collapses carefully built situational advantage. The same voice that is a weapon in combat is a liability in stealth. Every sound is a decision.