Category Archives: Design

Artist, Design, Gameplay, Indie, Levels, Practical Exercises, Programming, Published games, Technical Artist, VFX Artist

The Esc4pe, a “primitive shooter” made with Unity3D

Featured tweet from GameJolt

Video reviews from itch.io & GameJolt

Today (August 4, 2018), the game reached +120.000 visits and +50.000 downloads, with a 4/5 avg. rate and featured on cover pages, on itch.io and Game Jolt marketplaces, in 60 days (near of 60.000 visits and 30.000 downloads between March and early May of 2017).

The game received a lot of feedback in the comments, and some users made video reviews with gameplays. This is a Youtube list with videos collected from user comments and Twitter searches:

Details

Project: The Esc4pe
Genre: First Person Shooter
Platform: PC (Windows, Linux, Mac)
Job description: Game Programmer, Game Designer, Level Designer
Technologies: Unity3D, .NET, C#
Links: Post on my blog, Visual Studio EX3, with more details (ES)

Downloads

Featured on itch.io marketplace with +25.000 downloads with a rate of 4/5 stars!

Featured on GameJolt marketplace with +40.000 downloads with a rate of 4/5! (Click on the thumbnail to view on gamejolt page)

Credits

José Miguel Sánchez Fernández - [EX3]
Game Programmer, Game Designer, Level Designer, "Voice" actor

Third party assets

Standard Assets & Cinematics Effects - Unity Technologies
 
 
Sci Fi Characters Mega Pack - PROTOFACTOR, INC: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/19831
 
 
Scifi LowPoly Ammo Pickups - Pixelgraffiti: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/12005
 
Yughues Free Palm Trees - Nobiax / Yughues: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/13540
 

Amplify Color and FXAA Fast Approximation Antialiasing - Amplify Creations: http://amplify.pt/

Light Shafts effect - Robert Cupisz: https://github.com/robertcupisz/LightShafts

Camera Filter Pack (CRT Effect) - Vetasoft: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/18433

Sound weapons & items effects are downloaded from Freesound.org site (http://www.freesound.org). All samples are under Creative Commons licence (Attribution 3.0 License)

Music themes "Hitman", "The Complex" & "Killers" are creations of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) and released under Creative Commons licence (Attribution 3.0 License)

Description

This project is made as practical exercise for the "Master Degree in Video Game Development with Unity3D & 3DS Max Official Autodesk (MPV)" of CICE Madrid (http://cice.es/curso/master-en-desarrollo-de-videojuegos-con-unity-y-3dsmax/).

A "primitive shooter" developed in one month with technical restrictions based on the topics seen in class until the project start date. The game is not optimized (its performance is not stable).

Support XBox360 Controller in all PC platforms (implementing the input map for Linux and OSX following the information found on this wiki).

The game is initially designed to be played in 5~10 minutes (It can take 20~30 minutes to complete).

Developed and full tested under:
- Intel Core i5-2500 @ 3.30GHz
- 8GB RAM
- AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series (with Crimson drivers)
- Windows 10 Pro x64

P.D.: This game will not receive new updates, bug fixes (for now) or new version with more levels.

Design, Gameplay, Indie, Programming, Published games

Aquanoid

Details

Project: Aquanoid
Studio: Undead Code Studios
Genre: Arcade
Platform: Web/Flash
Job description: Game Designer, Game Programmer
Technologies: Flash, Action Script 3, Flixel, Flash Develop, as3sfxr, MochiAds
Source code: https://github.com/VisualStudioEX3/Aquanoid
Play:
    - Play for free on Newgrounds (Flash plugin not required)
    - Play for free on BlueMaxima's Flashpoint project

Credits

Producer
Eduardo Millan - SiPoX

Game Designer, Game Programmer
José Miguel Sánchez Fernández - [EX3]

English Localization
Cristina Pinilla Fernandez

Graphic Designer, Level Designer
Ruben Barroso Heredia (*)

(*) Disclaimer: The rest of the team and I, after the publication of the project and in the future, we are no longer related, supported or associated with this person, Ruben Barroso Heredia, and we are not responsible for their legal or illegal activities related directly or indirectly, with the video game industry or related business, including false professional experience accreditation or related training jobs in this area as teacher.

Description

Game Designer and Game Programmer for the development of Aquanoid. An Arkanoid based game with altered mechanics: the pad/player float on water. The water level goes up every few seconds. The player dies if reach the block level or the ball touch the water.

This game is based on my version of Aquanoid (2K8) for the Game Jam of Campus Party Spain 2008.

Design, Game Jams, Gameplay, Programming, Tech

Pulpetes Forever

Details

Project: Pulpetes Forever
Genre: 2D Puzzle-Realtime strategy
Platform: Windows
Job description: Game Programmer
Technologies: .NET 4.0, C#, XNA 4.0, TLSA.Engine (own XNA Game Engine), Visual Studio Express 2010
Dev blog: http://ex3perience.wordpress.com/category/compo-cpes15/ (ES)

Credits

Producer, Game Designer, Level Designer
Eduardo Millan - SiPoX

Graphic Designer
José Zanni - Josepzin

Game Programmer
José Miguel Sánchez Fernández - [EX3]

Description

A project for the Game Jam in GameDev area of Campus Party España 2011. A game inspired in the classic Lemmings. The game was programmed with TLSA.Engine, a new version of my old game engine in Visual Basic 6.0 and dx_lib32 (an own game framework). This version is based in .NET, C# and XNA 4.0.

The restrictions of the Game Jam were: octopus, teleports and randomness.

Design, Game Jams

White & World

The player character is based on the TLSA marine sprites designs.

Campus Party 2010: "DesarrolladorES Game Jam" Videogame Showcase

Campus Party 2010: "DesarrolladorES Game Jam" First Prize Presentation

Details

Project: White & World
Genre: 2D Platform-Puzzle Adventure
Platform: Web/Flash
Job description: Graphics Designer Support
Technologies: Flash, Action Script 2
Dev blog: https://ex3perience.wordpress.com/category/compo-rapida-cp2k10/ (ES)
Download: white_and_world_cp2010_flash_player_windows.zip

The ZIP file include the Adobe Flash Player 32 bits for Windows and the SWF game file. Run the CMD file to launch the game.

Credits

Producer, Game Designer
Eduardo Millan - SiPoX

Game Programmer, Graphic Designer
José Zanni -Josepzin

Graphic Designer Support
José Miguel Sánchez Fernández - [EX3]

Description

1st place in the Game Jam of Campus Party Spain 2010!

A project for the Game Jam in GameDev area of Campus Party Spain 2010. A 2D platformer-puzzle adventure with the mechanic of create and destroy by the action of eliminate the enemies in the correct order.

The restrictions of the Game Jam were: black & white theme, puzzles, create & destroy.

P.D.: At the beginning, the idea was a I will program the game, in Visual Basic 6.0 with the TLSA Engine, an unfinished own game engine based on dx_lib32 (an own game framework) that can be found in this portfolio. The early prototype was made with it, but at last hour, we decided to use Flash and Action Script 2 for the final development.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Design, Game Jams, Gameplay, Levels, Programming, Tech

Aquanoid (CP2K8)

Details

Project: Aquanoid (CP2K8)
Genre: Arcade
Platform: Windows
Job description: Game Programmer, Graphic Designer, Level Designer
Technologies: .NET 3.5, Visual Basic .NET, C#, dx_lib32 (own game framework), Visual Studio Express 2008, MS Paint (as level editor)

Description

A project for the Game Jam in GameDev area of Campus Party España 2008. This an Arkanoid game with altered mechanic: the pad/player float on water. The water level goes up every few seconds. The player dies if reach the block level or the ball touch the water.

The game defines her levels with small bitmaps images of 12x12 pixels, where the color pixel defines the type of block.

The restrictions in this Game Jam were: water, puzzles and comic style.

Design, Levels

Counter Strike Map Design

Info: In these years I used [B-84] Nightmare as nickname instead of [EX3] on cibercafes where playing Counter Strike with friends. In the video not is appreciable my full name at bottom of the easter egg wall. You can see it better in the last screenshot in the gallery.

Details

Project: CS_Parcela
Genre: Multiplayer level for Counter Strike
Platform: Windows
Job description: Level designer
Technologies: Valve Hammer Editor 1.1
Download: cs_parcela.zip (1.89 MB)

Description

A small map for the classic Counter Strike (currently Counter Strike 1.6) composed with multiple usable spaces and differents routes to connect the two main areas.

This map was designed in 2001 and it's builded using an old version of Valve Hammer Editor, then known as WorldCraft Editor, included with any copy of Half-Life or expansions like Opposing Force and Blue Shift. This editor version doesn't has any advantage functionality like realtime rendering or precalculated lights, common functionalities in modern level editors or the current version of Valve Hammer Editor.

The map included waypoints for the old version 1.4 of POD-Bots, one of the various choices of the moment to get bots to play versus the CPU in Counter Strike. The video show the bots in action. In order to make the bot able to navigate the map, is necessary to set behaviour points to configure actions or define paths (the bot system includes an user friendly editor in game time for this task).

The map is available for download and it's fully compatible with Counter Strike 1.6 (the waypoint file is not included because of being incompatible with current versions of POD-Bots).

Extra

Also experimented other ideas for bigger maps than CS_Parcela, inclusive a map for the Half-Life: Oppossing Force expansion (and had the intention of creating campaing levels, for a single player mode). This gallery below show sections of these prototype maps.

Unfinished map of custom campaing: Star Ranger

Design, Gameplay, Programming, Prototypes

T.L.S.A.: Argos Operation

Full view of the background scenary.
Some enemy animations sprites and the player shoot animation secuence, like a FPS view.

Details

Project: T.L.S.A.: Argos Operation
Genre: 2D Point & Click - Graphic Adventure
Platform: Windows
Job description: Game Designer, Game Programmer, Graphic Desisgner
Technologies: Visual Basic 6.0

Description

Point & click graphic adventure game. Attempt to improve the concept implemented in the previous game, TLSA: The Light Star Adventure. This time, the game had the ability to display larger scenaries, the player could move with the mouse, making a side-scrolling movement, like a 180 º view.

This time, the elements of the game, like the characters, already had basic animations and sound effects. The game development is unfinished, due to the complexity of developing in Visual Basic 6.0 Windows Forms and User Controls system. The result is an advanced prototype of the concept designed, a little achievement.

The graphics are own made ​​freehand with mouse in Microsoft Paint. The sounds are a mixed of samples from other comercial games.

Design, Levels

Lode Runner level design experiment

Details

Project: Codename Atapuerca
Genre: 2D Platformer-Puzzle Adventure
Platform: MS-DOS, Windows
Job description: Level Designer
Download: ATAPUERC.PZL (15 KB)

Description

A small campaign levels for Lode Runner: The Legend Return game. Is an experiment that intended to create a platformer adventure using the mechanics of the original game, to create a game play experience, and the different level themes for create a variety of sceneries.

The levels are available to download.

Artist, Design, Gameplay, Programming, Prototypes

T.L.S.A.: The Light Star Adventure

Details

Project: T.L.S.A.: The Light Star Adventure
Genre: 2D Point & Click - Graphic Adventure
Platform: Windows
Job description: Game Designer, Game Programmer, Graphic Designer
Technologies: Visual Basic 6.0

Description

Point & click graphic adventure, in first person, set inside a spaceship, being attacked and boarded by enemy soldiers. The player taking the role of a prisoner who manages to escape from his captors and aims to try to escape alive from the ship.

The player can navigate the corridors of the ship, interact with various elements of the enviroment (look in wall panels, input controls, access to computer terminals, investigate corpses...), talks with characters (the conversations could have various lines of dialogue with different ways and results), inventary, which could be used with scenarios, and even was available ability to shoot enemies in specific scenes.

The game had only one level, the corridors of the ship and some rooms, giving a total of 15 different locations. The game had several situations, either by death or specific situations (terminate arrested by soldiers, for example). Were available automatic checkpoints to avoid losing the game progress from certain points. The graphics are own made ​​freehand with mouse in Microsoft Paint, and static, without animations. The game hadn't sound or music.