FROM THE SHADOWS
Lead Game Designer | Technical Game Designer | Level Designer
Role
Lead | Technical Designer | Level Designer
Presence
From pre-production to release
Engine
Unity
Type
Graduation project - 4 months
Genre
Platformer | Puzzle | Co-op
Platform
PC | Mac
Status
Released
Year
2020
ABOUT
From the Shadows is a cooperative puzzle-platformer in which players must escape from a mysterious castle by solving puzzles and overcoming traps around the mechanics of Shadow and Light.
One player controls the Light character, who emits an aura revealing the light platforms and making the shadow platforms disappear.
The other player controls the Shadow character, evolving on these platforms.
This unique mechanic has great depth, which allows the game to be filled with many levels.
LEAD GAME DESIGNER
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Lead 5 designers from pre-production to a successful launch, with more than 230 reviews on Steam and thousands of downloads. From the Shadows won 3rd place at the Game Development World Championship 2020 in the Hobby category.
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Increased overall team communication by being a link between Art, Design and Programming teams.
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Referent in term of level quality and new game mechanics
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Improved overall level qualities by giving feedback on work produced by other designers
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Kept everyone busy and interrested by setting up tasks for every weekly sprint
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Writing and keeping the GDD up to date
[FR] From the Shadows - GDD
TECHNICAL GAME DESIGNER
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Prototyped the base game in pre-production phase in order to validate game mechanics and pitch the project to others
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Allowed other level designers to start creating levels really early on on a special prototype
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Improved level design efficiency by creating and setting up prefabs in Unity
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Ensured game mechanics fit within the game by prototyping them before developping them
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Script different game events in levels (dialogues, animation) using one of our tool, Cinemachine and Animation Track
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Realisation of in-game cinematic, using Cinemachine and Animation Track, and animating parts of it
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Programming of the Music Manager script, and implementation of soundtrack and effects using FMOD
Our music is composed of multiple layers that are superimposed throughout the levels. This allows the game to grow in intensity until the final battle against the boss.
The challenge was to implement it in Unity and FMOD, and setting up the levels on which the music increased or decreased in intensity, without ever breaking the loops
MusicManager.cs
SongManager.cs
Here is an example of one part of the FMOD project I set up:
You can see here the parameters that allow me to activate layers independently, and to handle the main volume (increasing in intense moments).
LEVEL DESIGNER
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Ensured cooperation and storytelling in levels by designing them with special attention to staging, lighting and difficulty
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Raised level quality by populating them with assets and lighting to highlight important gameplay elements
Levels from prototype to final product:
Video of the boss fight I designed:
Videos of levels I designed: