José Rafael Striedinger

A Pigeon Tale

From Direction, and technical game design to development, lighting and game feel on Unity. A Point & click narrative adventure game about an injured pigeon in an WW1 veteran's attic. Winner of the Aesthetics category of the 2023 Indiecade's Hidden Heroes Jam.

Led a team of 6 3D artists, audio designers, and writers on the Creative Direction, which was to portray a story in a couple of minutes that could pull people’s heartstrings with a combination of narrative and game feel (lighting, mood, music, etc.). Games like Life is Strange, and Botanicula were the inspiration. The game narrative centers around a mother telling her child a story about the time she helped her grandpa’s injured pigeon in the attic, which led her to know more about him and inspired her to continue her dream as a writer. Inspired by the real grandfather of Sophie Short (one of my teammates).

Multiple Gameplay Systems

I designed and developed multiple gameplay systems aimed to be easy to prototype with, including

  • Point-and-click: interactive items that can be examined by the player and give a narrative reward
  • Follow path system: easy-to-edit path system that enabled us to change the level design and placement of the items without much issue
  • Technical narrative: dialogue system with event callbacks

Level and Narrative Design

Level design prototyping and final implementation aimed to deliver an emotional journey in three simple Acts.

Designed 3 simple acts where level design, lighting, and movement all add to a cohesive player experience.

Environmental Storytelling

Worked on level art implementation to create a place with a story in itself, every section has a narrative background. Also worked on lighting and particle effects to convey a particular wholesome aesthetic.