Games: FENRIR

Overview

FENRIR tells the story of the mythological wolf who escapes his imprisonment by the gods and searches for the one place where he will be safe from them, meeting characters such as his father Loki, the trickster, the wise giant Mimir and Hel, the Queen of the Dead.

It was a second semester student project at the Frankfurt Games Academy, made with Unity 3.0. It could be called a 2d plattformer, but its story-driven design focus was to create a dense atmosphere and convey emotions, rather than test the player's skill.

As the team-lead, I had the opportunity to hone my project and people management skills. Apart from moderating meetings and writing the minutes, I also tried to keep all distractions (giving presentations, administrative stuff etc.) away from my team members so they could focus on their tasks. I also contributed to the game design and was responsible for all audio.

Lessons Learned

We did not quite manage to finish the project on time. This was partly due to the fact, that we had attempted to do too many things that we were doing for the very first time, and partly also because we suffered a bit of feature creep and had to redesign mid-project to refocus on our original vision of the game. We also learned that it can sometimes be difficult to communicate to outsiders what you're going for when it doesn't fall into a typical game genre. At the same time, trying to explain your game to someone outside your team is a great test on whether you have a clear vision.