Jorge Vazquez
Game Programmer
Rollossus is a third person ball rolling game where players must narrowly escape death as an agile spirit, enduring endless haunting enemies. In this rolling action game, you must handle rabid foes each with their own powers and abilities, in order to defeat The Rollossus. The game was developed by Almost Infinity Games, was released on March 1, 2019, and is available on Steam and Itch.io.
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Dynamic Camera
Most of the work I have done for Rollossus is with the player camera. The goal was to have a camera that could respond to the player's actions and surroundings. Below is a design diagram for the camera.
Diagram By: Kaleb Eberhart
Camera Parameters
Thanks to a GDC talk about cameras, Rollosus uses custom camera settings to make the camera feel less restrictive. The following are before and after GIFs for the camera.
Before
After
Camera Rotation States
In order to keep the camera from falling through the world, special angular parameters were set. Below is a design diagram that explains what is happening in the GIF. These parameters are constantly changing as the game has changed drastically from its initial pitch.
Camera Position States
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Rollossus uses various triggers in order to set a specific camera position state and behavior. Along with the default state, special conditions will allow the camera to adjust itself when it needs to. The GIFs to the right show these states.
Half-Pipe Position
Tether Ability By: Daniel Barnes
Tether Position
Idle Position
Viscid Touch (Gravity Wall)
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This was a prototype feature for Rollossus. Rollossus was originally an open world, exploration game. Viscid Touch would have allowed for scaling vertical walls within the world.
Bounce Pad/Bounce Wall
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The Bounce Pad allows the player to vertically scale the world of Rollossus. It essentially served the same purpose as the Viscid Touch, except not as a player ability. There is also a Bounce Wall that works identically, but is used to launch the player forward.
Snare Mine
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The Snare Mine was a prototype stage ability that the player had in Rollossus. It would allow the player to trap various enemies, and then launch them away.
Project TellTale
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Project TellTale is the temporary name for the story-based exploration game that I have been working on in 2019. It is a solo project being developed in Unreal Engine. The name is in reference to the game company TellTale, which made story-based exploration games.
In the game, you play as Miles, a young adult that is suffering from various mental health issues including PTSD and Psychosis, a condition that causes visual and auditory hallucinations. The player will be tasked with exploring Miles' home in order to uncover his past, all while maintaining his mental health. You will also have the opportunity to make choices when completing activities, tasks, or events during the game. Beware that each choice has a consequence on Miles' mental health, called Condition. If his Condition gets too low, you will start to see and hear things that may or may not help you as you play the game.
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Pitch: Every decision has a consequence. Your past is the key to fixing your mistakes. Don’t let the voices win.
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As of May 2020, the game is in full production with most of the core mechanic designs, house level design, and story outline completed. The production of the game is currently on hold until summer 2020 while I work on other projects.
Level Design
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The original version of the game was supposed to include a full house, including a first, second, and basement floors, a farm outside of the house, and a garage. The current version of the game will only consist of the house and the first and second floors. The screenshot below is based on the old design. The diagrams below are the current designs for the house. With each milestone, the house designs will be updated to add more to the world.
Mechanics
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Below are the various mechanics in the game. A handful of them have been implemented into the game, while most of the rest have been designed in the diagrams below. The video below shows the interaction mechanic and its variations.
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Exploration
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The player will be able to move around in a small, open world.
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Interaction
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The player will be able to interact with objects.
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The player will be able to pick up certain objects to help them progress.
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The player will interact with objects to start activities.
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Choices
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The choices will affect the outcome of the game and the player.
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Condition
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Choices will add or subtract from the player’s Condition value.
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The player must minimize the negative choices they make to keep the Condition value as low as possible.
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Based on the player’s Condition, the protagonist will hear different voices.
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Secondary
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Activities - Activities that affect player Condition and include cooking, cleaning, etc.
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Whispers - Auditory hallucinations that direct the player to points of interest.
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Shimmers - Visual hallucinations that direct the player to points of interest.
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Interactions
Cutscenes
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One of the restrictions that the project is facing is the lack of art and animations. Instead of having traditional cinematic cutscenes, Project TellTale will feature a special kind of cutscene, called Flash Cutscene, that will utilize visual and auditory hallucinations to display silhouettes and dialogue on the player's screen. These will provide a break in the gameplay to give the player important information about Miles' past. The diagram below shows a general design for a Flash Cutscene.
Iguana Dash was produced during Train Jam 2019 by myself, Alex Garbus, and Kyle Nestmann. It featured music by Elie Abraham. It is a 4 player co-op racing game that offers the option to play various different ways. Instead of trying to finish first, players must earn as many leaves as possible. They can be earned by moving around the track and finishing the race (higher place means more leaves).
My contributions to the game included most of the UI programming. This includes keeping track of laps, leaf count, and the countdown as well as all the conditions that change them. Note: I was not responsible for the actual UI, just the programming. Below are some GIFs of my work.
Player Leaf Count
Lap Count
Countdown Timer