Pneumata


Overview

Pneumata is a first-person survival horror game with inspirations from Resident Evil and Outlast. It tries to take something from both games, the first-person / fast-paced elements of Outlast and the puzzle progression / inventory system from Resident Evil.

My role in this game was to develop the console versions for PS4 / PS5, Xbox One / X / S and Xbox Series X / S. There was no one else in the team except from me, so I kinda assumed both the role of developer and producer for this port. There was a way for me to communicate with the original developer of the game some months after the porting process started, but he was not really collaborative, which ultimately ended up delaying the end of the console development process for several months.

Since I was the only one on the porting team, I took care of basically everything regarding this project: GPU optimization, CPU optimization, draw call issues, PS5 activities, Xbox engagement system and user swapping, platform configuration, some system reworks necessary to ensure the proper functioning of the game on consoles (for example, reworking the Save/Load system into an Async Save/Load system), etc.

Biggest challenge I've faced on this project?

This is the closest I've been to development hell on a porting process. The publishers thought the dev would finish the game soon but that kept being delayed for almost an entire year and it obviously ended up dragging the porting process. Since levels were being constantly reworked there were days where I woke up to find all my last week's work was basically going to be for nothing, and since new features were being added or removed from the gameplay loop without prior notice, the state of the project ended up being scarier than the game itself...

Biggest lesson I've learned on this project?

I've learned a lot regarding lighting and draw calls optimization, but being honest, one of the most important things I've learned on this project was to be patient... and how to endure not-so-great hours of work.


Platforms