Gabriel Bondia – Game Designer
Lire la vidéo sur Heard - a game by Gabriel Bondia, Paul Guyot and Simon Bosser
Heard
stilts • exploration
• mutual herd
Created with Simon Bosser and Paul Guyot in ~200 heures
Developped with Unreal Engine 5
Context
Heard is a project created as part of the « Jeu Vidéo » Master’s Degree program, on the theme of travel.
This project was entirely handled by only 3 designers: the game prototype and GDD are mainly focused on our design intentions.
Pitch
To get home, a traveller uses stilts to cross a molasses-covered world. The mutual relationship maintained with birds of prey is the key. But his memories of the outward journey resurface…
My involvement in the project
• Team project conception around a concept art by Simon Bosser.
• Design of a game system emphasising a mutual relationship with birds.
• 3C-oriented game design on the Stilts and Stick mechanics.
• Focus on feedbacks, using camera movement and Dualsense’s adaptive triggers.
• Development in Unreal Engine 5, doing lots of back and forth between the engine and paper design.
Showcasing design intentions though systems
• Rethink herd mechanics, by making both the Player and the birds interdependant.
• Rethink movement systems by proposing rhythm and balancing challenges on Stilts.
• Make players consider finiteness through the game systems: every island that feels safe will inevitably sink.