Paulo LafetáGame Development

Game archive

3D Adventure / Action • PC

A complete third-person 3D adventure/action game created to share the history, culture, tourism, and other important aspects of Brazil’s Estrada Real region. The project provided invaluable experience building a full game from scratch.

Studio
Federal University of Minas Gerais (Belo Horizonte, Brazil)
Period
May 2007 – Mar 2009 · 1 year 10 months
Platforms
PC
Language
Python
Engines
Panda3D & pyODE
Team
3 programmers, 4 artists, 2 game designers
Role
Game Engine, AI, Gameplay, Physics, Animation & Audio
Estrada Real Digital screenshot 101 / 25

From the original archive

The fuller story.

Additional notes, footage, and development context preserved from the original portfolio.

01

Development story

Building a full game from scratch.

This was the team’s first large 3D game: a five-to-six-hour experience with a substantial number of assets, several gameplay types, and an intricate design.

The programmers began with a blank file after designing the entire game engine in a document. That architecture supported the development process well.

Every programmer and artist worked part-time while also attending university, often contributing extra hours because of the team’s passion for the project.

02

Looking back

Quick postmortem.

  • Limited time and resources meant the game could not receive all the polish the team wanted, but it became an accomplishment everyone was proud of.
  • The camera needed more attention and refinement, but the schedule was already crowded with tasks required to finish the game.
  • The project had no formal playtesting sessions during development - one of its biggest shortcomings and an important lesson for future work.
  • Parallel Split Shadow Maps were nearly included and would have improved the visuals considerably, but the feature was cut because it could not be optimized in time for low-cost Windows and Linux computers.
03

Archive footage

Alpha builds & experiments.

Estrada Real Digital alpha video 1

Chickens, forest exploration, horseback riding, a train chase, and a dance mini-game.

Estrada Real Digital alpha video 2

A dark cave sequence, flashlight exploration, a museum, and houses.

Estrada Real Digital alpha video 3

Apartment exploration, inventory, ravines, NPC conversations, and the city.

Estrada Real Digital alpha video 4

A battle against a creature from Brazilian folklore.

Estrada Real Digital gameplay archive
Parallel Split Shadow Maps experiment

A graphics feature that was ultimately cut from the final build.

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