Terebron

Context

As part of my career transition, I had the opportunity to complete a two-week internship at the independent studio Terebris Games, located in Evry-Courcouronnes. Following several interviews with game designers and level designers, notably at Ubisoft, 2Badgames, Sloclap, Osome Studio, and Bulwark Studios, I wanted to explore these professions more closely by participating in an immersion program.

How to play ?

Terebron is a narrative puzzle game featuring three main game modes: Probe Objective, Probe Order, and closed Terebron. The goal is to complete each puzzle, also called a terebron,with as few errors as possible and as quickly as possible to achieve a higher score. To do this, the player must fire a laser which starts at one point and ends at another, depending on the level’s layout.

Probe Objective is a mode where player must fire on each orb (here, the gray triangle and the green circle) as many times as the game requires. The shots pass through the gray orbs, while they are stopped by the green orbs.

In Probe Order mode, the player must fire on the orbs in a specific order by performing the required combination.

In Closed Terebron mode, the player has to scan the terebron and then place the various elements based on the scan results. A scan reveals only the orbs and certain other elements, but never the mirrors, which deflect the shot by 90°. On the left is the closed terebron, and on the right, its solution.

Role

To improve accessibility, I had to add an easy mode to the campaign, in addition to the existing normal and hard modes. It was important to provide a more accessible experience while still offering a progressive challenge, all without compromising the original terebrons. Players sometimes have more time to complete the terebrons and more mistakes are allowed , but that’s not all. The design of the terebrons is also different. The form remains the same, but the content differs, adding replay value to the campaign, which offers different puzzles depending on the difficulty level.

During the development of this new campaign, a significant amount of documentation work was done through the creation of Level Design Documents, as well as extensive QA and balancing efforts.

In addition to the campaign, the game offers level packs. These contain several terebrons, typically grouped by the same game mode or difficulty. This extends the game’s lifespan, and the workshop and level editor built into the game allow the player community to share their own creations. I was therefore tasked with expanding the workshop by creating new packs.

To diversify my tasks and further explore the possibilities offered by the tools at my disposal, I created a particle system so that the player receives visual feedback based on their actions, as well as an alternative theme for the campaign.

The main theme of the campaign is green. It is meant to represent the main character, Gwlader. However, certain packs and certain levels in the campaign feature an alternative theme, either with a different color or with all the level’s elements replaced to match the theme. My task was to create an alternative theme representing another character in the game, Darkhim, a character who generally leaves a strong impression on players.

Feedback

This immersive experience allowed me to step outside my comfort zone by exploring a genre I wasn’t necessarily familiar with. It also gave me the opportunity to learn how a small studio operates and to understand the work of the various roles involved in game development.

Furthermore, this experience allowed me to get to grips with Unity and Git, two software programs I wasn't familiar with.