Level & Game Designer
Etherborn: Desert of the Mind
Duties: Level and Puzzle Designer, Artist (including VFX, materials, models, etc).
Tools: Unity, 3D Studio Max, Photoshop.
Inspired by minimalist architecture, with an organic twist. This was actually one of the first levels I made for the game (around 2015), so it was also heavily influenced by the low-poly illustration styles from that time. It’s the stage that experienced the largest number of iterations in the whole game, having parts being completely reworked several times as I learned more about our technical limitations and the ways people were interacting with the game.
My tasks
- Designed and tested level-specific game mechanics.
- Created art mockups to validate the style.
- Designed independent puzzles and situations and set an appropriate order to create a sense of progression and pacing.
- Planned and built the gray boxes.
- Provided the creative vision and ensured every member of the team was working towards it.
- Communicated with the music composer to set intentions, mood, and genre.
- Did the technical setup of interactive elements, such as switches and moving pieces.
- Sequenced and gameplay cutscenes.
- Manually configured the camera system across the whole level.
- Modeled and implemented most of the art assets, including 3D models, textures and materials.
- Created new shaders whenever needed (using Amplify Shaders).
- Optimized and reworked certain shaders for consoles, with the goal of displaying practically the same visuals across all platforms.
- Designed and set up baked and real-time lights, VFX, sky, LUTs and particles.
The connections
While Shapes of a Memory was an introduction to the core mechanics, this level explores ways to express them as an intricate, compact volume where every corner has a meaning.
The following level, Structured Thoughts takes this concept to a much larger scale.
The camera system
Etherborn uses fixed camera coordinates relative to the player, manually assigned by us to independent volumes. These volumes can be configured to apply the camera position only if the player is walking on a specific gravity orientation of six possible (+x, -x, +y, -y, +z, -z) to cover all possible scenarios. The reason is the optimal view the player needs for each surface is usually different depending on the orientation.
The system was programmed by Carles Triviño Massó, while I placed and set up every volume.
For further examples in an even more complex scenario, please check the following level, Structured Thoughts.
Additional Credits
Music: Gabriel Garrido Garcia
Producer and 3D art assistant: Alexandra Escudero Pérez
Lead programmer: Carles Triviño Massó
Additional programming: Miquel R. Gámez
Sound FX: Matias Lizana
Character animations: Frederic Vergés, David Boada
