Project Spotlight
"Tiris"

An ESAT student game project developed in less than a year by a team of 22 graduating students 

In this interview, the team shares more about the project, realised in 2025, from its concept and inspirations to the development process and the roles of its members.

Can you please give us a brief introduction and elevator pitch for the game?

Fabricio Aquiles Molinaro San Martín: Liria, mistress of alchemy, must save his lover Narcis, who fell into the darkness by a plague spread by the Necromancer, separating his soul into 3 fragments.

Now Liria must save all she knows of, Tiris, his hometown, and Narcís, his lover.

What makes the project unique compared with similar games?

Fabricio Aquiles Molinaro San Martín: The fact that all places from the game are a little window into the real streets of Valencia, they all represent a real place in some way. From the catacombs all the way to the final cathedral.

What is the inspiration behind the concept, including visual influences for the environments and characters?

Fabricio Aquiles Molinaro San Martín: We wanted to set our story in the medieval times but with a fantasy perspective to have more freedom on what could be done and things we could come up with. For the story we wanted something that isn’t really casual, a female hero that saves a boy from his own fate; by reversing the roles we create something new and more in line with the times we live in.

For our characters we found them on various Valencian myths (La bruixa, cavaller de foc, garrofer’s myth, home dels nassos, la bruixa, la bubota, la cucafera, and real person Jaume I) we tried to take Arcane as a base to represent them visually, as we thought that it would be interesting to give such old myths a new twist into modern times with new tools and resources.

Aside from all this, for the game’s intro, taking advantage of the Valencian representation of the project, there’s something called “socarrats”, that can be seen across various cities and is a little tile full of symbolism, varying from religious themes to social situations, so embodying this on the project was a must and gives it his own particular way of telling Liria’s story.

What was the size of the development team and each member's role?

Fabricio Aquiles Molinaro San Martín: We consisted of 9 artists, 3 designers, 6 programmers and 4 producers. As artists, we got to do the visual side of the project, where we did characters (concept art, 3d modeling, painting, rigging and animation), environments (from conceptualizing it first to then compositing them on engine with a set of varying tile sets, creating materials for different uses, and lighting it afterwards), and last but not least, VFX (Niagara particle system with 2d flipbooks).

Artists: David González, Fabricio Molinaro, Miguel Mateo Arce, Ginés Molina, Shihao Wang, Ana Climent, Luis Arnosi, Marcos Aznar, Nico van den Brink.

Designers made the game basis for what every zone and level should go towards, directing the player to where they wanted to and making the game have a sense of risk and reward from the very beginning to the final gameplay zones with different mechanics, puzzles, layouts for every map and combat systems.

Designers: Joan Lonzi, Tatiana Navarro, Miguel Fernández.

Programmers made the game possible, there wouldn’t be a so-called game without them, the literal found on the project. Everything that can be seen was possible because of them, making sure to program every single thing that the designers and artists needed, so working side by side with them was a must.

Programmers: Carlos Hurtado, Daniel Rivero, Fede Sanjuan, Marc Lluch, Marc Folgado, Sergio Madaleno.

Our producers guided us in every step of the way in different areas, directing artists, designers and programmers.

Producers: Daniel Argudo, Juan Diego Alegre, Jordi Carazo, Fernando Lara.

Last but not least, Berklee made the music for the whole game, making also sound effects that can be heard across the whole project, so working with them to get everything to sound as it was needed for the game was a giant’s task that made every step before more cohesive and vivid inside.

Berklee: Aitor Gaztambide, Craig Saliba, Qingyao Lin, Jakub Lewkowicz, Kamal Vanterpool, Nicholas Adams.