FRACT OSC

FRACT is a musical exploration game. You arrive in a forgotten place and explore the vast and unfamiliar landscape to discover the secrets of an abandoned world that was once built on sound. As you start to make sense of this strange new environment, you work to rebuild its machinery by solving puzzles and bring the world back to life by shaping sound and creating music within the game. FRACT features a beautiful open world to explore and decipher with music-based puzzles, stunning visuals, and an amazing score that evolves as you play. As you progress through the game, you unlock tools to make your own music in the FRACT studio, where you can also export and share your creations with others.

FRACT was originally developed by one person, Richard E Flanagan, as a student prototype while studying game design at the University of Montreal. He continued working on it while looking for a job in the games industry, and submitted it on a whim to the Independent Games Festival. Much to his surprise, it was chosen to be part of the Student Showcase and went on to win the IGF Award for Best Student Game in 2011. He decided that he wanted to develop FRACT into a commercial release, so brought his wife Quynh Nguyen on board to make it happen, along with their programmer Henk Boom. The team was also fortunate enough to get support later in development from Indie Fund, which has helped them get to the finish line.

1. FRACT OSC official Site
2. Buy FRACT OSC
3. FRACT OSC news and devblog
4. FRACT OSC PressKit

FRACT - Adventure Game Design

FRACT is an atmospheric adventure game set in an abstract forgotten world of analog sounds, samples and glitches.
Myst + Rez with a heavy dose of tron.

June 2010 to December 2010

The player is presented puzzles from a first person perspective, much akin to the classic Myst titles but with an electro twist. In order to unlock the inner workings of this strange world the player must revive forgotten machinery while keeping a keen ear and eye out for clues.

What began as a finishing project for my Postgraduate Diploma in Game Design at Université de Montréal is now finally done. All design, modelling, animation, sound and scripting was done 100% by me over a period of 3-4 months.

FRACT has been selected as one of the 2011 Independent Games Festival student showcase winners!

The versions below are the most up-to-date with bug fixes, new resolutions and invert mouse.

I would love any feedback, so please don’t hesitate.

There is possibility for future worlds if there is enough interest so let me know what you think!

1. » Download the beta for Windows or Mac
2. » The FRACTgame.com website
3. » Send me some feedback
4. » Université de Montréal
5. » FRACT is an IGF Student Showcase Winner
6. » FRACT at the Independent Games Festival website
7. » FRACT article at Rock Paper Shotgun
8. » IGF Student Showcase winners on PCGamer
9. » FRACT on indiePub Games

FLECT - Videogame Design

What began as a simple blender prototype turned into an action packed lo-rez passion project with custom analog-derived sounds, power-ups and brutal level design.

January 2010

Currently I’m working on wrapping up the ‘final’ version of FLECT, but this should give a good idea of some of the basic mechanics involved.

Despite it’s simplicity, the game is punishingly difficult; definitely for the hardcore retro-centric gamer.

1. » Download the PC beta - 50Mb
2. » Download the MAC beta - 54Mb
3. » Watch the clip on Vimeo

Notre Histoire: Le site historique des Canadiens de Montreal - Centennial Website

Le Site historique des Canadiens de Montreal, a website commemorating 100 years of the hockey club’s history with an integrated set of interactive tools for new and old fans alike.

June 2009

The site is massive, providing hundreds of player profiles, greatest moments, and in depth looks into seasons, arenas and even the evolution of the jersey & logo. With the help of the innovative Timeline & Dashboard, Notre Histoire has become the quintessential source for all details regarding the Habs’ history.

My role as Lead Art Director on this project focused on system interface & interaction design along with content implementation strategies.

Designed during my time at Bluesponge in conjunction with Turbulent here in Montreal.

1. » Webby's 13th Annual Honoree
2. » Communication Arts Web Pick of the day
3. » 15th Annual Communicator Awards
4. » Watch the Walkthrough on Vimeo
5. » Bluesponge
6. » Turbulent
7. » Jeff Clermont
8. » Watch the Walkthrough clip on Vimeo

An Incredible Machine - Emergent Analog Game Design

An awesome little project designed to flex our game design muscles outside of the digital realm, while educating kids on the merits, challenges and aspects of designing videogames. The game echoes some of the mechanics found in The Incredible Machine, Peggle, and even Lemmings.

April 2010

Our design objective was to provide a framework of flexible goals along with a vast set of modular tools, creating an emergent play environment.

The game was a big success, with all groups of kids besting our highest scores by a factor of at least five. Responses were very positive, and our game received the highest marks from the young students at the event.

1. » Forum Write-up in UdeMNouvelles
2. » Watch the clip on Vimeo

D.E.S.S. 2009-10 Bumpers - 3D Animation

A pair of intro-bumpers to precede a reel of student game prototypes from the University of Montreal Game Design program for the Graduating Class Expo.

May 2010

Twelve interactive prototypes were presented alongside a wide variety of card and board games. Overall, the event was a great success.

1. » Watch this on vimeo

Moloch: De Chair et de Sang - Game Design

A competitive card game focusing on domination, tactics and timing. Players build and fortify their temples in order to conjure up powerful beasts and magic, all in the name of a hungry god.

2009-2010

Moloch was developed over the course of 8 months, tweaked and iterated until we had a solid flow with fun and frenetic gameplay. Strategy, along with risk and reward patterns are integral to the experience with plenty of opportunities for role reversal.

1. » Download the Instructions (pdf link)

Charlie Brown Apocalypse for Nintendo DS - Game Design Document

Charlie Brown Apocalypse is a blend of two succesful Nintendo DS genres: adventure and management. Both aspects of the game will be played in parallel and in real-time, contextually linking elements into a seamless gameplay experience.

January 2010

Players will control Snoopy in order to explore a focused narrative in a relatively traditional adventure game setting, interacting with the Peanuts cast in order to solve puzzles, build relationships and explore new areas. Management will manifest in the form of character control in order to manage character mood and character position.

Charlie Brown Apocalypse shows the Peanuts group in a new, contemporary light. They are growing up and beginning to come to terms with leaving their playful youth behind and donning the responsibilities of young adulthood. Snoopy, however, wants everyone to stay fun, connected and ultimately childlike, and has taken it on as his personal quest to keep everyone in his playful imaginary world.

1. » Download the GDD (pdf link)

Canadian Centre for Architecture - Website

The website serves as a contemporary online platform in parallel with the Canadian Centre for Architecture Museum in downtown Montreal. The site is a powerful tool for users, linking content in meaningful and semantic relationships, while keeping the complex information architecture out of view.

September 2009

My role as Designer on this project was to establish a modular set of flexible templates and their respective design ‘bible’ in order to facilitate content needs, visual diversity and rapid integration/development.

This project was completed during my time at Bluesponge.

1. » Canadian Centre of Architecture
2. » Communication Arts Webpick
3. » Bluesponge
4. » Watch the walkthrough on Vimeo

PiggyBack - Game Design

A fast-paced two player board game designed to allow for flexible strategies and some simple emergent mechanics including unit customization and dynamic attack strategies.

October 2009

1. » Download the Instructions (pdf link)

CCA 20th Anniversary - 3D Animation

After developing the new CCA website, the team at Bluesponge was asked to create a visualization to be presented at the museum’s 20th anniversary celebration. As the Art Director and Motion Designer, my final animation was displayed, looping, for 20 hours on 9 plasma screens in one of the museum’s central rooms for the event.

February 2009

The sequence was designed to show the semantic and functional relationships created throughout the CCA’s vast amount of content, while giving event-goers a sneak peak of the site to come.

The event drew nearly 15000 visitors.

1. » Watch this video on Vimeo
2. » The Canadian Centre for Architecture
3. » Bluesponge
4. » More info on my blog

Total Invasion - Game Design Document

Total invasion takes a novel twist on the traditional tower defense formula by putting you in control of the attackers! Using simple management techniques and well timed power-ups, the player can overwhelm the defending base.

May 2010

The challenge was to create a minimal but feature complete GDD within 6 hours. The resulting document is then used as a guide to be prototyped by another group of classmates.

Playable prototype coming soon!

1. » Check out the GDD Wiki

CCA ACTIONS Exhibition - Promo Clip

A fun promo clip designed to build buzz and interest for the Canadian Centre for Architecture ACTIONS exhibit.

June 2009

What was originally planned as a web-only promo quickly spread to brodcast & public spaces.

My role as Art Director was the design and implementation of the bricolage titles, the transitions and the conclusion concept.

Directed by Francois Blouin while I was working at Bluesponge.

1. » Watch the video on Youtube
2. » Infopresse Profile on the ACTIONS campaign
3. » Bluesponge
4. » Visit the ACTIONS website

Mystic Dance Kid - Game Design Document

A psychedelic FPS which takes the player on an old-school journey battling bizarre enemies with even stranger weapons and abilities. Play as Alex Zadora as she rescues the Mystic Dance Kid from the evil lords of trans-psycho-dimensional dance!

April 2010

We were tasked with designing a game based two parameters: a randomly chosen game engine, and a randomly generated game name. Mystic Dance Kid on the decade old Aleph-One engine was our challenging result.

By leveraging the strengths of the open source Aleph-One game (of Marathon fame), the game draws from classic FPS roots, and retro re-imaginings like Serious Sam HD while blending in contemporary emergent combat mechanics.

Players can mix and match various attacks and effects in order customize the action to their playstyle. Adding to the over-the-top action is a unique combo system that gives skilled players access to insane super powers to deal with their foes.

Moxxi Knowledge Translation - 2D Animation

A educational 2D animation sequence designed to help users better understand the MOxxi system and it’s role in primary health care.

August 2009

The overall goal of the MOXXI research program is to help physicians and pharmacists deliver the best care possible by providing them with the information they need about their patients’ health and medication.

1. » Moxxi Knowledge Transfer
2. » Watch the clip on Vimeo