A competitive multiplayer game where each confrontation can change everything, but where only the last kill will win you the match. Behind this proposal is a team of ten students from ESMA Toulouse.
Navid Agahi, Thea Albespy, Benoît Bardet, Benjamin Bouffinier, Bastiaan Fernandes, Jean-François Fontaine, Celeste Mazier, Mailys Rucort, Lucas Dupuy and Guillaume Velilla worked tirelessly for almost a year to create this high-flying show, with its rich and unforgiving universe.
The game can now be downloaded here, and we’d like to take you behind the scenes of its creation today.
Two brothers, one throne
In a landscape already awash with videogame offerings, how do you stand out from the crowd? Perhaps simply by going back to basics, and to the essence of gaming, which is confrontation?
At least, that’s what the students behind Sunder were aiming for. A duel set in a distant yet familiar universe, pitting two brothers against each other for the throne of the desert rock on which they now live.
A universe and a premise that will remind the most venerable among us of the settings of the very first Unreal Tournament games, and fans of vast desert spaces of the immense expanses of Journey, a clear influence of the team.
In this universe, our two protagonists (who follow the tradition of the goddess Hadoram, imagined by the team as an ancestral divinity with the air of a mystical nocturnal bird), fight to the death in a match where exploration, survival and strategy will be the keys to victory, but also their own faith.
“To bring this project to fruition”, the team recalls, “it was essential to offer captivating and effective gameplay based on three pillars: tracking, Dead by Daylight-style; movement in the dunes, Journey-style; and strategy and use of the environment, which are at the heart of a game like Thief. We organised numerous test sessions, as well as tournaments, to put our system to the test and allow players to familiarise themselves with the universe. Looking back, it’s undeniable that these sessions helped bring our game to fruition, and led to successful development.”
It’s a success that owes a great deal to this simple but captivating premise, but also to the artistic development and considerable thought that went into creating this singular universe.
A desert full of opportunities
More than a simple Stalingrad-style sniper duel, Sunder also stands out for the richness of its environment, which itself plays an important role in the way players are able to triumph over their opponents.
As they pass through the ruins of the ancient civilisation that once inhabited this desert exoplanet, players will be able to find powerful bonuses that will enable them to make a difference, while at the same time being both predator and prey. “Our desert holds many secrets,” says the team. “And they’re not just visual. Through the use of beacons , players can reverse the course of the game, and choose to reveal their position. It’s also thanks to these beacons that players can guarantee their survival, because any player who is killed without having a beacon under his control will lose the battle.”
It’s a way of adding another level to the confrontation, and forcing players to become more aware of their surroundings.
Creating the ultimate confrontation: a team effort
Bringing such a project to fruition in just a few months required the students to really push themselves to the limit, as well as real coordination. After all, while creating a video game obviously requires a host of technical skills that are acquired through advanced training, it also requires a good dose of collaboration and project management.
It’s an experience that, because it’s very similar to that of video game studios, often proves formative for students aspiring to join this booming industry.
“We’ve learned an enormous amount during this process,” concludes the team. “This collaboration has made us grow, and we’re really pleased to have been able to overcome the many challenges we faced, both in developing this universe and in putting it together artistically and technically.
We were able to bring Sunder to fruition thanks to a collaborative approach, constant communication and the project management skills we learnt during our training and developed during this exercise. Today, we’re proud to be able to offer this game to a large community of curious fans of unique videogame experiences, and we hope you enjoy it!” Sunder can be discovered on itch.io, along with the other graduation games created by our students.
Find out more about the Sunder game, available here :