AMERZONE : THE EXPLORER'S LEGACY

STUDIO : MICROIDS STUDIO PARIS

AMERZONE : THE EXPLORER'S LEGACY  is a first-person adventure & point-and-click game project in 3D environments with strong narrative and puzzle manipulation constraints.

This game is also a remake of the original 1999 opus. It therefore had to respect the original material and its unique identity, while modernizing it with 3Cs and level design in keeping with the times. The number of possible game situations for the player has been greatly increased, and the character's movements and camera work have been made much smoother.

I joined this project as a LEVEL DESIGNER one year after production began. Due to the game's re-scope, I was tasked with reworking the swamp level, which constitutes chapter 6 of the game (out of 7 in total), from scratch. Apart from a few instructions and guidelines from the project's creative lead and game designer regarding the puzzles, I had a great deal of freedom in all stages of level creation (from paper design to debugging and final polishing of the level). 

Where the old version of the level played on a labyrinthine aspect that was far too vast and ambitious (and far too frustrating with point-and-click 3Cs), I went in a totally different direction, aiming for something more contemplative, narrative, and immersive.

The goal was no longer to literally lose the player, but to make them feel a range of emotions of slight anxiety and unease (emotions that one can feel when lost).

Not only did I participate in the complete design of the Chapter 6 level, I also helped finish the level design work on the Chapter 4 level. This allowed the person in charge to fully concentrate on the Hydraflot, the fabulous vehicle at the center of the game, but also very ambitious to design as a level designer due to its many ramifications with all the levels of the game.

I therefore had to stay true to the vision of the previous level designer for this level in Chapter 4, which was still in the blocking phase with several puzzles not yet completed, and bring it to its final design stage, as I did for Chapter 6.

Finally, I helped all my fellow level designers debug and polish all the latest systems and details of each level of the game to make them as close as possible to the perfect experience we wanted. We were very lucky to have a lot of time for this debugging phase, which allowed the game to be one of the cleanest I've ever delivered. 

That's what I experienced during the year and a half of development to bring the project to its release date!