A long time ago, when our civilization reached its peak, a spaceship landed on our planet. Five extraterrestrial beings flew from their home planet in hopes of finding a better life elsewhere. A dangerous infection had spread across their home planet. Those infected mutated into giant mushrooms, which spread the virus with their spores. All other "lower life forms" ossified and died, leaving the planet covered in bones.
However, one of the escapees was infected without anyone noticing. After landing on Earth, he began to mutate, throwing the world into chaos. A few people fled underground, hoping to one day destroy the giant mushrooms and make the surface habitable again.
Depending on the context, the project name Kōhai can mean "devastation" in Japanese. After some experimentation, I created this logo using a font. I tried to give the logo the appearance of bone structure.
In order to survive on the surface world, my characters wear these tanks. The tanks contain a liquid that significantly increases the plants' photosynthesis, providing sufficient oxygen so that the characters don't have to breathe the polluted air.
In the final game, you will be able to choose from four different characters, each with their own unique weapons and abilities. Below are the concepts for the weapons.
In Kohai, a 2D platformer, you explore a dystopian world in co-op mode. Together, you will try to restore the ossified world and uncover its story. At the beginning of the game, you will choose one of four characters. Each character has a unique skill tree where you can unlock and level up abilities. You can always have just two active abilities, allowing players to experiment with different builds.
Since I had only worked on this project for four months and had no prior experience with programming or animation, I had to limit myself. I focused on creating one character and two enemies. Then, I made an endless mode based on increasingly difficult waves. There is so much more I could work on before Kohai is finished. However, I am happy with the demo version, and I have learned a great deal from working on it.
©colorfulblack 2026
