Author: Tom Ariaudo

L’homme et le songe – Anthologie “Entre rêves et irréalité”

Post author By Tom Ariaudo
Post date April 4, 2018
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Entre rêves et irréalité is an anthology of Science Fiction stories from the French publisher Arkuiris. The 27 stories composing it explore the links between dreams and reality and the way we keep crossing again and again the very thin line separating them. Here’s the summary on the back cover of the book:

What if dreams were more real than our days? What if they changed our perception of time and space, of other people and ourselves… Maybe it will be hard to wake up, or maybe this is what is going to save us. Unless we don’t wake up, unless we never slept in the first place or never woke up a single time.

L’homme et le songe takes place in a distant future, when a megalopole has completely covered the world. To recreate natural places, people developped so much augmented reality, now called “alternate reality”, that it began to leak into the real world and give life to people’s dreams. Of cours, everything went wrong when these began to develop self-consciousness…

You can purchase it online on Amazon or La Fnac, both in e-book or traditional book!

Game projects Level Design Professional projects

Detroit: Become Human – Quantic Dream

Post author By Tom Ariaudo
Post date March 19, 2018
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Detroit: Become Human is an interactive drama developped by Quantic Dream.

In the near future, androids have become widespread and are used for any kind of purpose, from every day life chores to heavy qualified jobs. As the political context about androids becomes more tense by the day, more and more of them begin to develop self awareness and emotions of their own. Follow the stories of three of them as they strive to live their newly found life in the middle of a chaotic world.

Detroit is a narrative-driven game that allows the player to have a huge influence on the stories. As a Game Builder I had to implement gameplay mechanics, characters’ behaviours, interactive cutscenes and scripted events throughout the different levels, from action sequences to investigation puzzles.

It was my first experience on a AAA game, from pre-alpha to master candidate, and a really motivating, interesting and rewarding one.

You’ll be able to play the game on the 25th May 2018. Until then you can find multiple trailers on the internet! Here is one of the most recent. Enjoy!

Game Design Game Jam Game projects

Rest in Beer – Prototype

Post author By Tom Ariaudo
Post date August 14, 2015

You’re Beer Bob, and your job is to keep the brewery at night. But some annoying customers really won’t leave the place -worse, they even try to steal your barrel!

Beerbob screen — This man wants to steal your beer. Push him!

Get rid of them by pushing them in the pool of beer down the platform, using your beer-gun, beer-grenades, beer-rockets or other various weapons you’re randomly given when you launch the game!

This prototype was made during our second Unexpected Game Jam, which lasted 48 hours with the theme “Beer brewery“. As a game designer, my job here was (and still is) to quickly write a document summerizing our needs in terms of metrics and gameplay elements, and then to balance them in game. As a game builder I integrated lots of stuff, from graphic assets to particle systems.

Rest In Beer Art Everypony — Family portrait: Ale Ina, Beer Bob and the Mc Drunks!

You can download the prototype at triiiniteam.itch.io/rest-in-beer!

We are currently working on a better version with improved graphics, more enemies, less bugs, a real balance between weapons, a score screen and another player character called Ale Ina!

Game Design Game projects Level Design Narrative Design Personal projects

Triii – Work in progress

Post author By Tom Ariaudo
Post date June 30, 2015

Have you always wanted to feel like a tree? To host koalas, to control people with your pheromons, to throw pine cones on tourists, to be one with the wind?

Triii New DA Search Menu_04 — Skill tree!

Don’t worry, be happy! Triii is here for you!

Triii is a RPG-tree-simulator which allows you to grow from seed to tree through entire eras in a menacing environment full of beavers and lumberjacks. Use your photosynthesis points to develop your skills and resist to the ~~absurd~~ numerous events waiting for you! Will you become a charismatic leader praised by a pack of hippies, or an evil lord feared by its enemies? It’s up to you to make your way through life through hard graft…

Triii is currently in development by the Triiiniteam with Unity 3D. As a Game Designer and a Writer, my job is to define the way the tree is meant to grow, what it needs and what it consumes, what kind of “skills” it develops over the time. And more importantly, what kind of events will happen and what will be their effects, how it will influence the development of your tree and even its alignment. And then of course to write them and put them in the game.

Triii World Color Test 01 — Color test for each era of Triii

Since it is my first simulator game, I have a bit of trouble when trying balance everything, but I plan to spend as much time as needed on it to smooth every parameter. What’s sure is that I rarely had as much fun as that when working on a project.

I don’t have any release date to give you, but if you want to follow our project, you can check out our Facebook or our Twitter!

All pictures here are work-in-progress and are meant to change once in the game.

Game Design Game Jam Game projects Level Design

Internship Mania – Prototype

Post author By Tom Ariaudo
Post date May 25, 2015

You’ve just finished your studies and it’s now time for you to start the end-of-term internship that will lead you to your professional life. Try to get as much experience as you can to succed in validating your internship and (maybe even) getting a job!

Internship screen — Hey, you, colleague, don’t get bored! I brought you a coffee! Now teach me please!

Reach to your colleagues and find ways to bribe them so they can share their knowledge with you, while avoiding to annoy your boss so he won’t fire you! You don’t have much time… Pay attention to your environment, and maybe, maybe, you’ll manage to survive your internship!

This game was made during our first Unexpected Game Jam, which lasted 48 hours with the theme “The austerity of a loser“. It then took 48 more hours more to complete and polish the game you can now play at triiiniteam.itch.io/internship-mania.

Chuck the carnivorous plant — Chuck, our talking flytrap. Or… interntrap maybe?

As a game and level designer, I had to quickly come up with a document detailling our gameplay and metrics, and then to compose a level which would act as a kind of labyrinth while still looking like an open space.

In the future we would like to complete this prototype with two or three more levels, a new tutorial, better feedbacks and a better balance.

Published stories

Azure – Glitch Out #1

Post author By Tom Ariaudo
Post date February 5, 2015

Glitch Out is a free French review from the website Le Renard Loquace about short stories and videogames. Each edition is dedicated to one indie game (it is The Girl and the Robot in the first edition and it will be Transistor in the second one), with a preview or a test of the game and an interview with the developers. There is also a call for short stories with a theme in relation with the game. However stories in Glitch Out are not fanfictions : they share their subjects with the game but they have their own background, their own questions, their own identity.

Azure is a short story about a little girl lost in a post-apocalyptic world, where rain is her worst enemy. It can destroy entire buildings and people wandering carelessly in the outside will probably never return. The only way to be safe is to find a shelter covered with ivy, which is not affected by rain. But ivy tends to leave quickly the inhabited places, forcing people to constantly move from one building to another. The story begins when Azure’s mother doesn’t come back and the little girl has to move to the next shelter all alone.

Current call for short stories is under the theme “Une voix, des voies” (One voice, many paths).

You can read it here. Good reading !

Game projects Level Design Professional projects

Brutus et Futée – Artefacts Studio

Post author By Tom Ariaudo
Post date February 1, 2015

Brutus et Futée is a point&click for 3DS developped by Artefacts Studio, in which you have to help two retired cartoon characters, Brutus the brawn and Futée the brain, to retrieve their life full of adventures. Lead them to the lost pages of their last script! Keep them alive through all the traps they encounter on the way! Bring their past glory back!

The game works as a kind of point&click. Each level is built as a scene from a movie that goes wrong (it generally ends with Brutus, or Futée, or both of them dying in a horrible though bloodless way). Then it rewinds and it’s up to you to set things right, by putting the right object in the right place, by drawing and erasing elements of the scene or by tapping your screen at the right time in order to trigger some helpful events – and to avoid a painful death. If you fail, then the scene rewinds once again. Each scene has several endings, but only one will allow you to continue your adventure!

I worked on this project as a Level Builder, I had to sequence all the elements in scenes so that they happen in the right order, at the right time when a player does something, whatever it may be. We used a home-made middleware, property of Artefacts Studio, which allowed us to manipulate precisely the animations we had to sequence. Thus I had to work closely with both programmers responsible for the maintenance of our tool and animators working on the project.

I really enjoyed my time working on it. If you want to have a look, you can check it on the Nintendo e-shop!

Game projects Level Design Professional projects

Gus, A vol d’oiseau – Artefacts studio

Post author By Tom Ariaudo
Post date February 1, 2015

Gus – A vol d’oiseau is a game developped by Artefacts Studio and TeamTO with Unity3D. It takes place in the same universe as the movie Gus – Petit oiseau, grande aventure directed by TeamTO.

In Gus, you will travel from North to South, from Europe to Africa in a great migration full of dangers. The gameplay was inspired by Star Fox 64: you control one of the four unlockable birds in sixteen levels, always moving forward, leaving you the task to gather all bonuses on your way and avoid every danger.

As a Level Designer I had to complete the level design documents that the Game Designer had started and create some of the levels along with another Level Designer.

If you want to learn more, check out TeamTO’s official website!

Game projects Level Design Professional projects

Garfield Kart, Fast&Furry – Artefacts Studio

Post author By Tom Ariaudo
Post date February 1, 2015

Garfield Kart – Fast&Furry is a racing game for iOS and Android developped by Artefacts Studio with Unity3D.

Join Garfield and his friends in their race for victory! Use your best steering techniques to win lots of challenges. Skids, pie throws, bouncy springs, explosive diamonds… your driving skills will be totally tested!

Garfield Kart – Fast&Furry is a freemium update to the original Garfield Kart. As a Level Designer I had to create, build and test the eighty new challenges the player would have to face, after the rules the Game Designer had defined.

If you want to have a look, you can check it on the Android Play Store or the iOS Appstore!

Game projects Level Design Professional projects

The ABC Murders – Artefacts Studio

Post author By Tom Ariaudo
Post date February 1, 2015

I worked on The ABC Murders project, developped by Artefacts Studio, as a Level Builder. I was in charge of the integration of some of the 3D puzzles.