SANTANA panero
Design & Visual Director
Islands of Insight
MMO Puzzle Adventure
Visual Director.
A MMO puzzle adventure game unique with surprising visuals with a fantasy realism look.
Otherworldly ancient beauty: materials and puzzle that evoke mystery and impressive landscapes that invite exploration.
Game audience : puzzle , adventure, exploration, achievers (completionists)
The social and competitive aspects lacked when the game was lunched, and that's why it was marketed as "shared world" instead of multiplayer.
Guidelines:
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Environment Art: use ancient architecture (Egyptian, Chinese, Roman, Hindu,...) in realistic beautiful landscapes that don't match the original architecture (ex: Egypt architecture in a rainforest) . We used realistic asset packs for the environment, this solution allows us to create a unique fantasy environment.
The 3D world should be easy to navigate and avoid the user being "locked" in dead ends.
Each biome has "hero" assets that help users identify areas and navigate through them.
Puzzle Art: use simple geometric shapes for the 3D puzzle elements (cubes, spheres,...), combined with unique shader and materials that add richness, otherworldly look and trigger curiosity for players to explore the puzzle. The visuals should be rich but at the same time emphasize readability and UX to make the puzzle experience clear and simple.
This process implies complex shaders with different masks and effects to emphasize shapes, contourns and key visuals (symbols, goal target,...) , because one of the main issues that we had is the different lighting cases, as the game is 3D and we were testing the puzzles in different lighting conditions.
Costumes Art: use ancient costumes/dresses combined with strong geometric patterns that fit the puzzle lore and game's unique art. The visual look includes unique otherworldly outfits -not just ancient historic- and animated materials that fit the game's lore.
islandsofinsight.com
EDGE FLIP
Slide & Solve Puzzle
I worked on this project as Product and Visual Director, documenting GDD , documenting backlog tickets, prototyping new mechanics, level design and UX and Art Direction (concepting, hands-on asset creation when required)
I was wearing many hats, and help me to push myself and learn much more about game design, producer and game business as a whole, as I was representing the company in western game events and being in touch with publishers and service providers.
Edge Flip is conceived to bring something fresh in the mobile puzzle genre, following the success of Lara Croft Go, Monument Valley combined with of casual interaction of popular sliding games (Unblock Me,...), with a F2P business model strategy that includes character level up, inventory items, boss puzzle battles (rounds solving puzzle with a limited time or the boss will attack players), and live ops strategy that includes Single and Team Tournaments, weekly events, and so on...
Imagine the world is a Rubik's cube...
Edge Flip is a mysterious exploration through fantasy geometric-tile 3D world. Introducing unique mechanics challenging players with mysterious puzzles, hidden paths, slide & solve secrets and exciting Celtic gods puzzle-battles.
Art visual takes inspiration from Celt mythology and 2D animation movies like Secret of Kells, Rubik's cube and motion graphics , Lara Croft Go and Monument Valley....each level is a unique, hand-crafted combination of puzzle, art and magic..
Edge Flip
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Just Deal with It
Just Deal With It !
Just Deal With It is a family card game designed for Sony Europe . We use their PlayLink tech , where players can use their phones to play with PS4 games. Because the game is about cards and offers a very tactile experience, we decided the art style should reflect this . The visuals look like a handcrafted world made of paper... with cut-outs, folded paper and origami 3D pieces that helps to unfold the history of the card games.
The mood of the game is casual and fun, joyful colors ,animations and VFX to enhance the card games and funny crazy characters like Elvis, Death, Jester and The Queen of Cards.
I was responsible of Art Direction, and hands-on asset creation for character animations/models, VFX and UI animations.
www.justdealwithitgame.com
Unstoppable Rex
Unstoppable Rex
Unstoppable Rex is a funny casual runner for mobile, where players need to run longer distance than their friends to win them.
The mood of the game is casual fun, light pastel colors and crazy fun animations . Getting some inspiration from "The Jetsons" to give a 60's animation look and 2D Raymans for the crazy animations.
I was responsible of Art Direction, and hands-on asset creation for 2D animations, spritesheets, and some background assets.
Infinity Warriors
Infinity Warriors
Infinity Warriors is a action "hack and slash" for mobile, where players use the touch screen to tap and attack.
The game is set in a fantasy world , beautiful 2D environment with multiple scroll planes to give depth and magic spells full color. We use Dragon's Crown from Atlus as a visual reference.
I was responsible of Art Direction, hands-on asset creation for animations , characters, backgrounds and UI.
Team Management
During my career I was involved in different Manager/Product Owner :
Scrum / Kanban (Agile development) ScrumMaster
GDD documentation
Backlog documentation and priority
Lean Development
Relevant aspects to maximize team efforts and deliver on time and quality.
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Tasks have TIME requirements (MVP thinking)
Deliver an illustration in 2 days, or in 5 days means you can afford different things, understand your budget limitations and workaround them to deliver the best.
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Iterate
Implement it in the game ASAP, iterate after that. Could be you will find issues that were hidden before, or could be later that task is dropped. No need to do the masterpiece at first try.
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Team Building
Grow as a team, helping each other. Communication and collaboration is key.
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Respect
Lead by example to get respect. Respect others people work. Communication and explanations avoids conflicts.
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Career Development
Reinforce people goals to deliver the maximum in their strengths and personal career growth. This will help individuals to unfold their full potential and help the team to increase performance.