Alien Extraction

Overview

Alien Extraction is an extraction shooter with an Isometric perspective inspired by the Alien universe. In this game you play as Raisen, an android sent to a facility where certain experiments have gotten out of control. You must proceed with caution, explore the environment, and neutralize the threats. Return after each expedition to upgrade and improve your weapons and abilities. Find and neutralize the source of the disaster threatening this planet and its facilities without perishing in the process.

Team

The videogame made in 4 months for the Project 3 subject on the third year of Videogame Design & Development degree at CITM. The goal of this project was to emulate a professional video game studio, aiming to develop a game based on the guidelines provided by the product owners, who, in this case, were our teachers using our custom game engine Ymir Engine.

The class was divided among the Design, Art, and Code departments. We had four months to deliver a complete and polished demo of the game, with progress submissions every two weeks. The product owners guidelines specified creating a DIABLO-like Extraction Shooter game set in the Alien universe.

Ymir Engine

One of the project goals was to develop the game using a custom engine. To achieve this, one of the previous subjects was focused on creating the core that would later become the engine for Alien Extraction. Each member had to create their own engine core and add one implementation such as a scripting system, skeletal animation, physics, and so on...

In the end, the best engine was the Ymir Engine, created by another team member. At the start of the project, the engine only had one of the implementations, and the other team members who had developed the rest had to integrate them into this engine. In my case, I had to implement the Audio Module. One of the requirements for this implementation was the use of Wwise, an interactive audio program developed by Audiokinetic and designed specifically for implementing sound and music in video games. This implementation required learning how all of Wwise features worked and then connecting the software to the engine.

Contribution

- Audio Module Implementation: I integrated the Wwise audio engine into our custom game engine. This involved ensuring that sound effects and music responded accurately to in-game events, and optimizing audio performance for a seamless auditory experience.

- Main Character Implementation: I was responsible for developing and implementing the main character in the game. This included the camera, coding movement mechanics, combat abilities, and interaction systems. My work ensured that the main character was responsive, fluid, and engaging to control.

Event

This project focused on the complete development of a video game using a custom-built engine, while simulating the workflow and structure of a professional game studio. The class was organized into Scrum teams, allowing responsibilities to be distributed across different development areas while following agile methodologies and meeting production deadlines established by the project owners.

The project concluded with a public playtesting event where professional developers evaluated both the game and the development process. This year’s guest studio was Larian Studios, who conducted playtest session and provided feedback on multiple aspects of the project, including gameplay, production workflow, and overall execution.