Shiness

Shiness is a mix between classic J-PRG and 3D arena fighting games (Dragon Ball Z Tenkaichi or the Naruto Shippuden series).

Play as Chado and his companions, and travel across the Celestial Islands onboard a flying boat. After a rough landing on hostile territory, you find yourself in the midst of a power struggle between several kingdoms. Chado and his 4 companions might be able to resolve this situation, along with the Shiness, a magical spirit that only he can see…

During the development of Shiness, I’ve been in charge of the whole Game Design part, under the patronage of the Creative Director.

I’ve been working on merging both gameplays (RPG and Fighting), creating every kind of documentation (game design document, features flowcharts, Articy:Draft…), design enemies AI and fighting patterns (including bosses), heroes’ exploration capacities and so on.

A  big part of my work on Shiness revolved around mixing and balancing every aspect of the game.

I’ve been working mainly with an Excel spreadsheet compilating any data of the game, and designed simulators in order to track any numeral aspect of the game (experience curve, damage dealing, cash flow, stats progression).

I also took part into the development of parsing tools in order to get an easy integration and testing workflow.

During the production of Shiness, I also had to handle several aspects of writing: side quest dialogues (mostly the humoristic ones!), skills and items descriptions, menus, and most game items.

I also worked on their integration, and managed communication with the translation team.

Luckily for me, as I was one of the few English-speaking developers in the team at the time, I attended most of the conferences and events the game was featured in (E3, Gamescom, Focus Press Tour…), met press and other developers, and have been giving numerous pitches of the game.