Pilots A Playable Short
Final Year Project (Solo) - Game/Cinematic Direction - Motion Capture - Story
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United Kingdom
TIGA Education Awards 2023 Winner
Outstanding TIGA Graduate of the Year: Computer Games Technology
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Following the everyday life of Juliett & Romeo, two top-gun pilots recently victorious from a war that lasted for months, their victory celebration will be messed up by an unexpected threat.
In this playable short my objective was to create a compact & concentrated experience where every minute of the player’s attention is not taken as granted. The cinematic presentation and capacity to surprise players' expectations throughout gameplay genres switches are one of the main highlights of this game.
Third person genre
Third person genre
Side scroll genre
Side scroll genre
Top-down arcade shooter genre
Top-down arcade shooter genre
The Story
The Story
“A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead.”
This quote best represents how I wanted to build my plot and the characters around it. This story takes a vertical slice of the life of the pilots Romeo & Juliett, and my main objective was creating something that works standalone as already it is, or eventually something bigger: A prequel? A sequel? Even both!
The first story moodboard
The Motion Capture
The Motion Capture
I’ve always been a huge fan of this technique to record the movement of a real actor to then apply it to a digital character. Despite I'm not an animator I wanted anyway to learn how to use this relatively old technology to give an extra human layer to the main characters of my story. It was pure fun. I had to imagine in advance how some key locations were supposed to look and how some shots were supposed to be filmed. Despite the animations were not perfect, with some wise camera placement I have been able to use all the recordings as planned.
The Art of Tricking players' eyes
The Art of Tricking players' eyes
For the whole project, one of my main targets was combining my director & designer capabilities in all those situations where there was a technical problem that was ruining the immersion.
An unrefined animation.
A teleportation of the main character in the middle of a shot.
The illusion of movement during a top-down arcade section.
“I’m not an animator, just a magician, I can make things disappear” Davide P. the game designer
How looks in game:
What happens off-camera:
How looks in game:
What happens off-camera:
How looks in game:
What happens off-camera:
The Rule of Third
The Rule of Third
During the whole development of the project, I've always kept in mind the compositions of all the main shots. Creating a balanced frame was fundamental for the spectator's perspective.
Screenshots from the game:
Check out other game/level design projects I've made:
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