Terrain recedes
The ground is meant to carry the lowest saturation and no glow that competes with an actor. Veins may be beautiful only in ways that step back.
This is the target.
This is where we are.
A dark vitrified world under a shattered golden sun, where the ground recedes, the armies own the light, and every strategic fact reads before its color does. This page presents the complete visual target for *Echoes of the Broken Sun*: our original modern RTS interface, faction architectures, combat effects grammar, and celestial landmarks, benchmarked against AAA standards while avoiding the traditional Blizzard clone trap.
Art status: Every image marked concept target is visual direction: not a screenshot, not the current build, and not a promise about a release date. Every image marked in-engine capture comes from the development build’s art-review fixtures with the interface hidden. Statements about what exists in source reflect the project ledger as of 5 September 2026. There is no public playable release. All concept targets are registered in the project asset register under
CONCEPT-001 through CONCEPT-024.One frame.
Every layer where it belongs.
Read it the way the finished game is meant to be read: matte charcoal ground and gold fracture veins are meant to recede, the Future Well is meant to orient the fight without shouting, and Meridian and Kharuun silhouettes are meant to carry the color while the Broken Sun enters from above. This is a low, cinematic framing, closer to a title shot than to the strategy camera, and no interface is drawn.
Landmarks orient
The Well and the causeway are meant to hold their light below any unit’s claim. Landmarks point; they do not compete.
Actors own the light
Compact machines on the left, Assemblies warforms on the right. Faction is meant to read from shape before cyan or amber does.
The Crownfall duality
Gold key against indigo fill is the lighting signature. From the strategy camera the sun is felt through warm light and vein glow, not seen directly.
Not in frame: Surveyors and Tenders, every structure, the Hollow Choir, the interface, fog of war, ownership marks, order and selection feedback, and telegraphs. The two brightest layers of the finished frame, transient feedback and interface, are absent, which is one more reason this is not a screenshot. The render composes surfaces, light, and silhouettes; it is not the map layout, and its Well core is a direction rather than the settled design.
The distance
between the two.
The development build already places the two starting shelves, the east–west ridge, the three crossings, the Matter seams, and the central Well as authored meshes, and its first surface families, motion families, and combat effects exist in source. What the target adds is what the build has not yet earned a public capture for: production surfaces and wear, atmosphere, qualified lighting, and a composed frame that passes the readability bar at combat speed. The gap is the work, and the Updates page tracks it.
Left: concept direction for surfaces, lighting, and silhouettes. Right: the accepted 29 August 2026 art-review capture from the development build, interface hidden. The shelves, ridge, three crossings, and the Well’s position come from the deterministic map shown on the right; the render is not the map. Neither image is a screenshot of play. The in-engine capture is not final art: lighting, effects, animation, and destruction are scheduled for the last phase of production.
A palette you can
name from across the map.
Every surface, effect, and interface element in the finished game must belong to one of five notes, plus one cool complement for the sky. A color that cannot name its note does not ship.
Terrain and mass
Charcoal
Terrain body, structure mass, and interface panel ground. Never lifted to grey by fill light.
website swatch #1c1f22Civic surfaces and type
Pale ceramic
Compact-built surfaces and interface type, with wear at edges and load points rather than uniform grime.
website swatch #ecebe6The warm accent
Broken-sun amber
Fracture veins, Kharuun mineral identity, the key light, and alerts.
website swatch #f0b45aPossibility bleed
Magenta-fracture
Crownfall phenomena, the bleed of erased futures, and the Hollow Choir’s identity.
website swatch #b3417aMatter and confirmation
Cyan
Matter deposits, Meridian engineered systems, and interface confirmation.
website swatch #5fd8e8The sky’s cool half
Indigo
Fill light and shadow temperature, not a surface color. Gold against indigo is the Crownfall duality.
website swatch #7a99e0Swatches are the website’s own sRGB presentation of the five notes; in-engine linear values are the authority. Website type is the website’s own. The game’s interface typefaces, Space Grotesk and IBM Plex Mono, both under the SIL Open Font License, are decided in the project directive.
Beyond the clone trap.
Tactical clarity for a modern RTS.
StarCraft II proved the power of instant readability and high contrast. But copying its 1998 three-box bottom console (minimap on left, wireframe in middle, 3x5 grid on right) robs an RTS of screen space and originality. Echoes of the Broken Sun replaces the heavy bottom shelf with a floating contextual command arc, opening the battlefield while keeping hotkey muscle memory razor sharp.
Floating contextual arc
Appears smoothly when units are selected; disappears when observing the battlefield. Leaves the center clear of intrusive solid metal frames.
Vector contour radar
Elevation bands, chokepoints, and fog boundaries render as clean vector lines rather than muddy bitmap thumbnails.
Live resource telemetry
Clean horizontal indicators for Matter (cyan), Dawn (amber), and Logistics capacity keep economic health readable in your peripheral vision.
Holographic unit status
3D animated wireframe, dual health/shield curves, and weapon ranges project as light, not an opaque box.
The front door.
A diegetic command bridge.
Rather than a flat 2D button list, the main menu is a live 3D observation deck inside an Ark-City command bridge. Commander Mara Vey stands at an interactive holographic war-table, reviewing contested sectors on Soryn while the Broken Sun blazes with fractured plasma rings outside.
Three ways to build.
Zero generic sci-fi tropes.
Buildings in Echoes of the Broken Sun are governed by strict silhouette, material, and functional rules. The Meridian Compact builds with repairable ceramic-armored frames; the Kharuun Assemblies cultivate living basalt geology; and the Hollow Choir stabilizes unchosen timelines with dual shadows and magenta possibility bleed.
Meridian Compact
Industrial engineering
Pale ceramic heat-plating (ceramic_civic) over dark machined steel, hydraulic blast doors, status bands, and ground-projected cyan conduit grids.
- Anchor (HQ): Heavy octagonal hull, dual surveyor ramps, and cyan sensor array.
- Power Link (Pylon): Hexagonal pylon spreading a planar logistics energy grid.
- Array Foundry: Overhead gantry crane, robotic welding arms, and roll-out tracks.
- Aegis Post (Turret): Sloped ballistic bunker with automated twin kinetic railcannons.
Kharuun Assemblies
Living mineral geology
Cultivated directly from Soryn's vitrified basalt strata with concentric illuminated amber geothermal fissures and acoustic resonance whiskers.
- Memory Hearth (HQ): 145m living basalt dome with geothermal conduits and resonance spires.
- Waystone (Mobile Root): Banded quartz column with walking geological tripod legs.
- Growth Basin: Stepped terraces surrounding an iridescent geothermal mineral gestation pool.
- Listening Spine: Volcanic needle with resonant quartz whiskers detecting seismic tremors.
Hollow Choir
Phase uncertainty
Maintained possibility: levitating geometric hyper-structures, spans casting two valid divergent shadows, and radiant magenta possibility bleed.
- Concordance (HQ): Polyhedral core bound by three counter-rotating harmonic containment rings.
- Interval Loom (Pylon): Levitating tuning fork projecting ethereal magenta refraction fields.
- Chorus Loom: Converging geometric mirror ring bending environmental light to synthesize units.
- Phase Anchor (Turret): Three orbiting dark-crystal facets discharging probability fracture beams.
The strategic staging war room showcases all three factions with complete macro-mechanic dossiers, unit showcases, and live campaign route selection.
Weapons of light and stone.
Clear feedback at combat speed.
Combat readability is paramount. Weapon discharges, projectile tracers, and shield impacts must read instantly even when hundreds of units collide. Effects conform strictly to layer luminance budgets (ART-A4-002), ensuring weapon beams and shields stand out cleanly against the matte basalt terrain.
Kinetic & Ionized Beams
Piercing cyan railgun lines with ionized ribbons, modular hexagonal energy barrier ripples, and pale ceramic smoke puffs.
Magma & Mineral Flak
Explosive molten amber magma globes, razor-sharp volcanic basalt splinter flak, and concentric amber seismic shockwaves.
Reality Distortions
Magenta probability fracture beams, chromatic aberration phase-shift shimmer, duplicate phantom silhouettes, and imploding spatial rifts.
Clamped emissions
Zero strobe frequencies; emission transitions are clamped below 3 Hz and obey photosensitivity and reduced-flashing safety standards.
The contested wound.
The Future Well in combat.
The Future Well is the battlefield's defining tactical landmark. Below, forces establish fortified perimeters as swirling Dawnshard solar plasma erupts from the impact basin.
Strategy beyond the match.
Tactical map, field ledger, and analytics.
A complete RTS experience demands diegetic shell systems that respect the player's intelligence. From sector route planning to post-match telemetry curves, every interface is engineered with pale ceramic typography, dark charcoal backing, and responsive feedback.
Campaign Operations
Tactical planetary radar
Connected route nodes track the 15 campaign operations across Soryn. The dossier panel displays objective briefs, Dawnshard yields, threat assessment meters, and Commander Mara Vey audio waveforms.
In-Game Pause
Mara's operational ledger
Diegetic frosted charcoal glass preserves dimmed tactical context underneath. Displays live mission checklists, elapsed combat timers, current casualty ratios, and swift action controls without full-screen blackout.
Debriefing Analytics
Telemetry performance curves
Multi-line interactive analytics track Matter harvest rate (cyan), Dawn extraction (amber), and army value (white) across the match timeline, with event markers for Future Well protocol triggers.
Fully compliant with SPEC-UI-006: dynamic UI scaling (80%–150%), live side-by-side High Contrast preview, Reduced Motion, Reduced Flashing, and real-time audio loudness calibration to -24 LKFS.
From concept target
to playable reality.
With all 14 visual design targets, faction architectures, menu hierarchies, and VFX grammars codified in the project repository, our development team and AI collaborators have the definitive blueprint to bring Echoes of the Broken Sun to life in Unreal Engine 5.8.
Shell & Main Menu Staging
Build Entry_Menu.umap with Ark-City interior geometry and Crownfall exterior vista. Implement WBP_EchoesMainMenu using Unreal CommonUI.
Tactical HUD Integration
Integrate WBP_EchoesTacticalHUD with floating contextual command arc, vector contour radar, and live telemetry bound to EchoesSimulationSubsystem.
Niagara VFX Systems
Implement faction particle emitters (NS_MC_RailgunBeam, NS_KA_MagmaBlast, NS_HC_PhaseBeam) and Future Well protocol states conforming to layer luminance budgets.
Rendered Verification
Qualify every player-visible outcome in the running game, with captured frames, input traces, and engine logs retained as evidence. Source review and headless runs never stand in for what the player actually sees.