Fernando Rodríguez Álvarez
Small games make me happy
¡Hola!
I'm Fernando Rodríguez Álvarez, a Spanish game developer with a love for unique gameplay experiences. I hold a Masters in Games Technology from the IT University of Copenhagen and have been developing my own games since 2020.I am a technologically-minded but creative person, and I have spent the past few years developing bite-sized-but-hopefully-fun videogames. I even managed to fund my own studio along the way!Below there's a list of some of the games I've made, which are interesting and special to me in very different ways. They are all free or have free demos available, so if you find something interesting, go ahead and give them a go! You may even tweet me your thoughts!
Over the past years, I have also taken interest in Virtual Reality, and I have developed some more technical projects for VR Devices. If you are into the more techy side, take a look!
DISCLAIMER: The games below feature original soundtracks and sound effects, but have been muted for your convenience. If you want to delight yourself with some great music made by awesome artists, go ahead and play them!
One Btn Bosses
Can a game feature one single input button, and still be mechanically intense and complex? ONE BTN BOSSES is clear evidence of that! Dodge, dash, and shoot your way through the different bosses in this action-packed challenge!ONE BTN BOSSES is the biggest and most successful project I have worked on. Initially started as a side project, its prototype demo got 100,000+ visits on Newgrounds and itch.io, which led us to look for (and find!) a publisher.After roughly 3 years of development, with the support of Outersloth, we released the game on August 6th, 2024. It has since gathered awesome reviews, with an average of 85 in Metacritic, highlighting it as one of the best indie games of 2024.As a new studio of 3 people, I was in charge of multiple aspects in the game, but most of my time went into technical development and level design.
LULLABY
Bring music and color to a dark and ominous dungeon! In Lullaby, you control a wholesome triangle and use a music wheel to combine and sing different music notes. Singing will help you bright up your mood, and solve puzzles on your way!Lullaby was made by a group of 6 people, over the period of two months. My main focus was programming the control and interaction system: a music wheel that lets you play different notes that interact with the elements of the world. I wrote a paper on the technical and design intricacies of the Music Wheel that can be read here.
>> FWD
Race! Fast! In ">> FWD", you are racing to the endline versus a mysterious fog that is catching up to you. Using your mouse as a rather unique racing control scheme, make precise movements, avoid damage and shoot enemies to keep your momentum and reach the end line alive.>> FWD was developed during the course of a month by 3 people. My contribution to the project was as a game and level designer, helping improve the feel of the game and designing most of the levels.
It is my first and only physical release so far, which you can check out at Super Rare Mixtape Volume #2.
BE FRIS
Shoot a frisbee, hit an objective, move, call it back, bounce it off, and keep on the combo for as long as you can. In Be Fris, your trigonometry and reflexes will be challenged as you try to hit all of the objectives in the least amount of time.Be Fris was made for the 2020 7-Day-FPS gamejam by a team of 3 people. I took care of all the programming aspects of the game, while my colleagues created the art and the music and sounds.
Loading out
Moving out is an exhausting process... Thankfully, it can be spicied up with a few WarioWare-like minigames! Daol needs your help loading their things in the truck... in the most literal sense. Find a way to fill up those loading bars, and help Daol in their journey!Loading out was developed for Nordic Game Jam 2021 in the course of 4 days. The development was made by a team of 5 people, in which my main role was programming. I developed 3 of the 8 minigames featured: golfing, stretching and fishing.
LIT
Your flame is the only element bringing light into an otherwise fully dark cave. Keep your blaze alive in this roguelike by defeating and avoiding enemies. But beware! Getting damage and using skills consumes your light. If you can't see your surroundings, how are you planning to survive?Lit was developed over the span of 4 days by a group of 6 people. My main focus during the development of the game was the implementation of a skill system that pops up every few levels and enables you to use a wide variety of skills. I designed and implemented some of the skills and enemies in the game.
Seasoned Wizards
The season cicle has been broken and you have to restore it!
Defeat enemies and solve puzzles to restore the order of nature. But be careful, the season will change every few seconds (check the clock!), and with it, your special abilities.Seasoned Wizards is a game made by 5 people over 4 days for Ludum Dare 47. I focused on programming, and implemented features such as some special abilities and a custom audio system that decides which SFX to play based on the current in-game season.
Intention Prediction in Virtual Reality using Deep Neural Networks
Predicting players' next actions can prove very useful for a wide variety of reasons. From conveniently repositioning items that will be off-screen in the future to performing rendering optimizations, it can be a way to ease in players into a new virtual space.For my Masters thesis, I developed and implemented a Deep Neural Network that, running and interfacing in real time with Unity, can accurately predict which item a player is going to interact with next in a simple scene.
Heavy Machinery Training Room
This Mixed Reality project was made in collaboration with iMotions, a company specialized in analyzing sensory human data. This project was developed to showcase all of the capabilities of the headset Varjo XR-3 to potential customers.This project featured:
- real-to-virtual mapping of a room with LiDAR sensors to make virtual objects interact with the real room (0:09).
- interaction with virtual items using hand gestures (1:01).
- gaze recognition (1:45).
- interaction of virtual items with the real world (2:25).