Estrada Real Digital [2008]
Estrada Real Digital is a 3rd person adventure game developed on DCC-UFMG (Computer Science Department - Federal University of Minas Gerais). The game is ambiented on a Brazil’s beaultiful natural and cultural patrimony, having locations of historic colonial towns such as Ouro Preto, Diamantina and Tiradentes recreated inside the game and some bosses based on characters of Brazilian folklore, like Boitatá and Mula sem Cabeça.
I was doing my master’s degree at that time and working as a researcher. One of the challenges of this project is that we have to use only free software on the whole project, then I researched some game engines to help with the development and I found Panda3D very interesting. It fitted all of my restrictions, had a good documentation and It is very easy to learn and use, so It was my choice.
Other challenge was working with people without any experience on game development and game design. The roadmap and screenplay was constantly changing. So, I led the development of a platform with run-time edit and tweak capabilities. This helped with the game design process and gave us the best short paper of SBGames 2008.
Relevant links:
- Download the game
- Report on Ciencia Hoje magazine
- Report on UFMG news website
- Report on GameReporter website
Publications related to this work:
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“Pandorga: Uma plataforma open source para a criação e desenvolvimento de jogos” (Portuguese) F. Miranda, P. Lafetá, L. Queiroz, C. S. Cordeiro, L. Chaimowicz – Proceedings of SBGAMES 2008.
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“Desenvolvimento de NPCs para o Jogo Estrada Real Digital” (Portuguese) C. S. Cordeiro, C. A. P. Souza, D. N. Sampaio, L. G. Teixeira, B. F. Domingues, V. M. Terra, L. Chaimowicz – Anais do SBGames 2006.