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Projects

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Untitled Forklift Game

May 2024

Personal Project

3C Design Vehicule

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Ristar Remake

WIP May 2025

Personal Project

3C Design

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HDR

HDR

WIP June 2025

School Project

As Game / Level Designer

• 3C Design + Balancing

• Gameplay Mechanics Design

• Enemy Design + Combat System

• Level Design

• Narrative Design

RISTAR Remake

Context

To highlight my skills in 3C Design, I needed a platformer with lightweight gameplay focused on movement and a single core mechanic. A 2D art style makes it easier to develop custom sprites, animations, and VFX. Remaking a retro game is the best way to demonstrate my understanding of the industry's evolution. Through this project, I showcase 30 years of industry advancements such as hidden mechanics or the new needs of players.

State Machine

I began my analysis with the state machine. In my remake, I focused on 3 levels of states: in the air, on the ground, and on the wall. For clarity in the diagrams, I ignored the damage and death states, as they are linked to each of the other states.Here is a simplified state machine of Ristar with these three levels of states. One aspect criticized in the game was its lack of dynamism, part of this problem comes from the relationships between states.

Ristar 1995

Problem 1: To reach the wall level, the player has to grab a ladder. This constraint creates a disconnection between movement states. Grabbing a ladder can be avoided by using collision detection. In my remake, the player can still grab a ladder to reach the wall level, but I improve movement fluidity by adding a connection that doesn’t require player input.Problem 2: While moving along a ladder, the player cannot jump or grab. This breaks the movement flow by forcing the player to stop before performing another action. To restore this flow, I allow the player to jump and grab while moving along a ladder.Levels are designed around climbing and combat. Their construction encourages the player to switch between these state levels, which is why developing these connections is essential to addressing the lack of dynamism.

Ristar 2025

The rest is coming soon!

Walk

- Mapping control
- Speed / Acceleration
- Friction
- No sprint
- Camera
- Improvements

Jump

- Mapping control
- Jump buffering
- Coyote time
- Curve
- Head bone collision
- Time at the apex
- Variable jump height
- Air control
- Physics
- Camera
- Improvements

Climb

- Mapping control
- Speed
- Friction
- No sprint
- Improvements

Grab

- Main mechanic
- Animations
- State Machine modifications
- Camera
- Improvements

Meteor Strike

- Mapping control
- New level in the state machine
- Camera
- Improvements

Relations with enemies

- Hit
- Damage
- Detection
- Camera
- Improvements

Side states

- How to bring more vitality to the character?

Iron Man Controller

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Iron Man Controller

May 2025

Personal Project

3C Design Character

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Games for KIPSTA

Untitled Forklift Game

Context

I started this project during the Global Game Jam 24 with the topic "Make me laugh". After these 2 days, I had a functional forklift controller but no good gameplay situations to drive it. I decided to continue this project by adding levels and polish. This game is inspired by forklift tournaments and Untitled Goose Game.

Overview

Thus, even alone in an environment normally populated by superiors and colleagues, the player enjoys causing chaos on the worksite while accomplishing his objectives.

Driving

Mapping Control

The player can move with [WASD or ZQSD].

To move forward, the player must press and hold [W/Z]. The forklift accelerates and maintains its maximum speed as long as the key is held down.
To move backward, the same logic applies with the [S] key.To turn right, the player must press and hold [D]. The rear wheels gradually turn to the left.
To turn left, the player must press and hold [A/Q]. The rear wheels gradually turn to the right.

Steering wheels

Speed

The forklift reaches its maximum speed in under one second.The maximum speed is carefully balanced to allow seamless progression through stages without wasting time on movement, while still being manageable in narrow spaces, such as between shelves.

When the player releases the acceleration key, the forklift decelerates and quickly comes to a stop.
This rapid deceleration enhances maneuverability during tasks such as stacking crates.

Improvements

The driving lacks dynamism and responsiveness. Adjusting the balance for faster acceleration and deceleration, along with adding slight vehicle shakes as visual feedback during starts and stops, could enhance the arcade-style driving experience.

FORKS

Mapping control

The player can raise and lower the forks with respectively [UP and DOWN arrow].

To raise the forks, the player must press and hold [UP arrow]. The forks will continuously rise until they reach the highest point. When the player releases the key, the forks stop moving.To lower the forks, the same logic applies using [DOWN arrow].

Scale

To improve maneuverability during crate transport, I lengthened the forks. The final length allows for transporting a crate while leaving some margin for error.Additionally, I increased the maximum height the forks can reach to enhance the arcade-style feel of the controls.

Actions

I see the forks as arms without elbows or hands.From this perspective, this mechanic presents three main actions to the player:
- Lifting an object
- Pushing an object
- Tipping over an objectThis mechanic challenges the player’s dexterity and their ability to manipulate objects in a 3D space according to the game's physics.

The object's air friction is designed to give the player time to reposition the forks while they are lowering.When the player lowers the forks, the crate on them will fall slower than the forks' descent. This gives the player time to adjust the forks and prevent the crate from losing balance.

Improvement

This mechanic could benefit from improved clarity by displaying the elevation level of the forks.This information could be represented diegetically using lights on the forklift to indicate whether the forks are at their lowest or highest position.Another, more precise solution could be a non-diegetic approach, such as a vertical slider with a cursor that rises or lowers proportionally to the movement of the forks.

HONK

Mapping control

The player can honk with [SPACE].

To honk, the player must press [SPACE]. The interaction is similar to a car horn in real life, but the sound has a limited duration. The end of the honk is independent of the player's control.To enhance its impact, I assigned this interaction to the largest key on the keyboard. This key can be pressed with the thumb, which is not used for any other actions.

Why add a honk ?

There are two main reasons:It can be difficult for some players to properly upright an object tipping over using the forks. The honk provides an alternative way to rotate an object.A secondary goal of the game is to wreak havoc on the worksite. The honk is an effective way to knock boxes off the shelves.

This mechanic is represented by a honk to tie it to driving a forklift. Most people are startled when they hear a honk unexpectedly. I used this idea to represent the mechanic: objects near the forklift "jump" when they "hear" the honk.When "jumping", they are propelled slightly upward and rotate in the direction the forklift is facing. The intensity of the rotation depends on the forklift's YAW orientation relative to the object's orientation.Each object reacts differently to this effect depending on its mass and angular drag (physical properties adjustable in the Rigidbody). This effect extends over a spherical area centered on the forklift.As feedback, a smoke VFX spreads across the ground around the forklift to indicate to the player that the honk has been used. The honk is locked until the smoke dissipates, lasting about 0.4 seconds. This prevents potential bugs if the player spams the key. The scale of the objects affected by the effect performs a slight bump to distinguish them from objects that were not impacted.

Improvement

Most playtesters who fail to position the desired object correctly after several honks become frustrated.To avoid this unintended frustration, one solution is to make the effect automatically orient the mission-critical objects (colored crates) correctly while maintaining the visual presentation (propulsion + smooth rotation). For other types of objects (cardboard boxes), the propulsion and rotation effect could remain random.

CAMERAS

Mapping control

The player can change the camera with [LEFT and RIGHT arrow].

To get the previous camera, the player must press [LEFT arrow].
To get the next camera, the player must press [RIGHT arrow].These interactions need to be quick and accessible. Assigned to these keys, this functionality allows the player to use their index finger and ring finger, which are otherwise unused.

Why several cameras ?

To simplify control, the player does not manage the camera.The camera must continuously allow the player to see the forks, which are the main element of the game. It should be oriented to keep the forks visible while leaving enough space on the screen for the player to anticipate obstacles by seeing what lies ahead of the vehicle.As the player moves between shelves, the view may often be obstructed by obstacles if the camera remains static. To address this issue, I decided to position the camera at different viewpoints. If the player's view is obstructed by an obstacle, he can switch to another camera angle that provides a clear view of the action.

Why more cameras ?

Improvement

To strengthen the connection between the camera and the vehicle, one solution is to adjust the camera's tilt upward or downward based on the elevation of the forks. This improves the readability of the action, especially in first-person view, and also indicates when the forks have reached their movement limit, as the camera's orientation is constrained by it.To make the driving more dynamic, a falloff in the camera's movement speed could be applied during the vehicle's start and stop phases.For smoother driving, the camera could follow the vehicle's trajectory by slightly rotating when the vehicle changes direction. Widening the field of view would help anticipate obstacles and make the driving experience more enjoyable.

Feel free to play it on Itch.io!

• Itch.io

Pakke-Is

About

My name is Rémy Masselot, and I am a 5th-year student pursuing a Master's Degree in Digital Creation with a specialization in Video Games at Piktura. More specifically, I am specializing in Technical Game Design, with the goal of becoming a 3C Game Designer.Throughout my studies, I have gained experience in various fields such as Programming, Art, Game Design, and Project Management. This multidisciplinary background has given me a better understanding of my team members' needs, which has greatly improved both my communication skills and my Game Design approach. I am adept at adapting my design process to fit the production's resources and the creative vision of the game.For me, teamwork is the most important factor in creating a successful product. This is why I pay particular attention to my documentation to effectively communicate and bring my ideas to life. I am also familiar with SCRUM, a production methodology based on sprints and milestones, which I use to organize my work.In my design process, I leverage a variety of tools such as XP Pillars, Player Personas, Core Loops, and Fast Prototyping. When I encounter challenges, I use techniques like mind mapping or 10-minute exercises focused on specific situations to find the best solutions. Thanks to my patience and flexibility, I am not afraid to iterate or start over multiple times to achieve the desired result.