Ruby and The Lost Crystals
-Context
Ruby and the Lost Crystals is a game project produced as part of the third year of the Bachelor’s programme in Games Programming at SAE-Institut in Geneva. The project is a collaboration between the school’s Game Programming, Game Art, and Audio Engineering departments. It served as the main project for the Game Programmers, while for the Game Artists and Audio Engineers, it was a side project alongside their other coursework.
The aim was to produce a vertical slice in six months (from September to February), enabling us to demonstrate gameplay that is representative of the game’s final concept. The aim of the project is to have a semi-professional experience where each discipline plays an essential role in production and where students can specialise in one aspect of game development.
Pitch
In a fantasy world strewn with ruins, Ruby and her mysterious companion Sapphire must work together to progress, with the sole mission of restoring the scattered crystals. To do this, Ruby is able to perform physical interactions, while Sapphire can fire projectiles with a variety of behaviours
Organisation Chart
Main Game Programming Team:
- Remy Lambert : Project Co-leader, Product Owner, Game & Level Designer
- Me (Olivier Pachoud) : Project Co-leader, Lead Game Programmer, Graphics Programmer & Tech Artist
Game Programming Team:
- Constantin Verine: Audio Programmer
- Alexis Haldy: Refactoring, Debugging
Main Game Art Team:
- Isabelle Borcard: Lead Game Art
- Eliot Depres: Main Level Artist
Game Art Team
- Mélissa Houriet: Made Sapphire’s model.
- Samuel Blanc: Made some gameplay models.
Main Audio Team:
- Samuel Rochat: Lead Audio & Wwise Implementation Expert
Audio Team:
- Johan Walder
- Yannis von Will
- Killian Rossier
- Luca Prati
- Arber haxidema
- Louise Durmaz
- Dylan Fracheboud
Showcase
Here is a gameplay video of the game:
Project status
July 2024: very first game mechanics prototype:
August 2024: proof of concept:
31 October: 1st production prototype focused on game mechanics and feedbacks:
19 December 2024: 2nd production prototype focused on game experience, narration and level design:
14 February 2025: vertical slice for the school’s submission deadline.:
What did I learn ?
- Developing a game on Unreal
- Versioning with Perforce
- Integrating and using Wwise with Unreal
- Team management
- Working with agile methodology
- Distributing tasks between programmers
- Working with game artists
- Working with audio engineers
- Lots of stylised graphics rendering techniques
- Using AI to create concepts and creative ideas
- Polishing a game
- Pitching a game
