School Projects
SOUND CITIES
Take control of the music in Sound Cities, a tactical turntables musical game.
Sound Cities was developed in 2008-2009 as a student project in the second year of my masters degree at Ecole Nationale de Jeux et Médias Interactifs Numériques (ENJMIN), by a team of 10 students.
It is a musical game using a specific controller, the BeatMania II DX turntables. In this game, the players have to play some music samples to create fighting units. These units then try to take control of the mixing console, and, in turn, take control of the sound. It resembles a DJ battle.
I proposed the concept of Sound Cities with a slightly different idea in mind (originally it was closer to a real-time strategy game, but played on rotating vinyl records). However, one of the things video game school taught me is that, thanks to the team that works on it, a concept can evolve, and grow, ending up with a final product that often differs from the original vision.
On Sound Cities, I created the main rules with another game designer, we created many concept iterations thanks to various prototypes developed by our programmers, and finally, I worked on pattern design and combat units balancing.
(art by Tom Granger and Jackson Moya)
Some early prototypes on top, that led to the final game at the bottom of this picture.
(art by Tom Granger and Jackson Moya)
A sample from the game design document, here about combat units.
(art by Tom Granger)
FATAL ERROR
Your computer has been infected by a deadly virus. But fortunately, John Fatal has been called to the rescue. Help this fearless hero exterminate the viral threat.
Fatal Error was developed in 2007 as a student project in the first year of my masters degree at ENJMIN, as part of a team of 5 students.
It is a set of minigames played in the Windows Vista system itself. This was the main programming challenge at the time.
The game is also a cartoonish tribute to bad action movies.
It was actually the first video game I ever worked on!
On this project, I worked on the minigames design and adjustments. I also worked closely with graphic and audio designers on the “screenplay“ of each minigame. Finally, I made the trailer and a video for the last minigame.
Unfortunately, there are not many records of this game today, and since it was pretty much “Windows Vista exclusive“, it is not playable on modern OS.
(art by Clément Pernel)
8 is not a school project per se, but rather a game concept we had to write as part of the entrance exam at ENJMIN. The task at hand was to create a project inspired by Paul Auster’s novel, Travels in the Scriptorium.
At that time, around 2006, I didn’t have any idea of what game design really was, so my approach here was more narrative driven. While in school I decided to focus on game mechanics instead of narrative, so I haven’t written much since then. That being said, it is something I enjoyed and would like to improve, so it is something I will pursue as soon as I have the time.
You can download this game concept document by clicking on the link on top of this section, (however, be aware that it is written in French).