Pin is now available for free download. Links below.
Pin
Using the evolution of artistic media as a framework, Pin is a story of self-discovery, challenging perceptions, and the communal experience of change. It features alternating 2D and 3D scenes that invite the player to grow and evolve with the protagonist and the game itself. It started as a way to explore the idea of truth and our perception of it. Since first writing the idea down in my sketchbook, it has evolved into an attempt to create an experience suggestive of the growing pains that accompany any change in our lives. This experience is one to which we can all relate.
From the beginning of the game, The Voice--a disembodied narrator--speaks in a combined interpretation of The Allegory of the Cave and Invisible Cities. The first level is loosely modeled after The Cave that Plato describes. As the player progresses through the game, the environment evolves with each step out of the false clarity given by The Cave in the first level. As the narrative unfolds, Pin’s ability to actually see the world around him adapts. This is manifested by changing the environment that the player actually sees.
photo gallery
The following images are all in-game screen captures.
Built using Maya, Mudbox, and Unity 3D
video
This is a promo/trailer for Pin. All in game footage. Created by Ben Tanzer and featuring music by Rob Frank. Game available for free download below.
download links
Pin is now available to play at home for Mac and Windows! It intended to be played with a dual stick controller, but can be played with the keyboard and mouse. Download and enjoy!
Undertoad
Undertoad is a collaborative project. We were given a premise: "Horny Toads vs Crazy Ants" and told to run with it. After having a good laugh about the names of these species, we came up with a narrative to build from. The game chronicles the resurgence of the rivalry between the Horny Toads and the Crazy Ants. Eons ago, the Toad society was quite technologically advanced. The Crazy Ants--being drawn to technology as they are in real life--viewed these Toads as deities, bestowing upon them the holy circuit boards for their consumption. The Toads, however, felt differently about the situation. The Crazy Ants swarmed in masses and destroyed what the Toads had built. Unable to defeat the Crazy Ants using brawn, the Toad society swore off technology, effectively cutting off the supply of electricity that the Crazy Ants desired and winning the war.
Decades later, our protagonist, Undertoad, knows that technology is a taboo practice, but no one in the village remembers exactly why anymore. He is bullied by the other young toads because he isn't as brawny as they are. To level the playing field, he invents a power glove that augments some of his natural abilities such as being able to shoot blood out of his eyes--Horny Toads can really do that by the way! The first level has Undertoad finishing the assembly of his glove and seeking out batteries to charge it. Once charged, he accidentally releases a surge of electricity in the abandoned Techno Ruins, resulting in reactivating the old machines. And of course where there is electricity, the crazy ants are sure to follow! Undertoad accidentally brings on the second coming of the plague of Crazy Ants and must make up for his mistake.
The gameplay switches from 3rd person action as the "Undertoad" to isometric puzzle solving as a swarm of Crazy Ants.
photo gallery
Below are some samples of asset work I did for this game. I did all work except for the modeling of "The Altar", which I textured, lit, and coded.
Built using Maya, Mudbox, and Unity 3D
Rorschach's Rat
Rorschach's Rat is a puzzle game that puts you in the shoes of a lab rat. Even though the assignment was only to create one level, I crafted a rich world to contextualize the choices I made. You and the scientist were once partners who agreed to put your brain into the rat's body; however, the process damaged your memory. In an attempt to gauge the success of the experiment, your old partner places you in different, closed-off sections of one large maze. Each new maze presents a new puzzle mechanic or a new application of one already learned. Depending on how well you complete a level, the scientist would respond with either praise or criticism. These comments would in turn alter your character's morphology rendering it either more human looking or more rat looking.
photo gallery
The following images are all in-game screen captures.
Built using Blender and Unity 3D