Game Design

•

The Last Survey

by Nicholas O'Brien

Assistant Art Director | Illustration & Animation

About the game

The Last Survey is a narrative essay where you take on the role of a geologist contracted by a Brazilian mining company to survey rare earth metal reserves. Rare earth metals like nickel, silver, cobalt, and platinum are used in most major electronics including PC parts, green technology components, and almost all mobile devices. However, after a year of conducting your research, you've found that there is not enough of these metals on the planet to sustain industries reliant on current supply chains, and you must deliver these findings to the company's CEO, Victor Ferreira.

Based on studies and projections from real-world geoscientists and mineral analysts, recent findings show there isn't enough mineral material on the planet for the growing demands for electric cars, high efficiency fuel cells, solar paneling manufacturing, and even some of the components used to play & produce this game.

Will your choices help steer the direction of your employer away from global mineral fatigue? Or will the urgency of your research fall on unsympathetic ears?
‍
This Game Features: Over 1500 of hand-drawn digital, graphite, and charcoal drawings - Choose-Your-Own Adventure monologue / dialog options - Multiple endings depending on how you conduct yourself - Dynamic soundtrack by Lewis Kopenhafer - Story-rich narrative that critiques globalism, extractionist capitalism, and executive greed

Praise for The Last Survey:

"A gorgeously animated short game about confronting the limited resources this planet & a chilling CEO... its haunting story has really stuck with me."-Eli Cauley of Crawlspace Studio

"The Last Survey is certainly one of the most poignant games I have played in a long while, and it is exquisitely illustrated to boot.”
-Dhruv of Studio Oleomingus

"I can't think of many other games that absolutely nail the atmosphere of serious corporate power. Plus the art style and soundtrack are excellent!"
-David Cribb, maker of A Hand with Many Fingers

"If there’s still an ongoing argument about whether visual novels are ‘games’, then The Last Survey is the conclusive answer."
-John Walker, co-founder of Rock Paper Shotgun

buy game

•

Godel Gallery

Lead Narrative Writer
Assistant Art Director
UI Designer

First they stole our jobs, and now they're coming for our art...

Artwork is defined by culture, and if Artificial Intelligence rules the new culture, do they determine the new world of art? Can artwork generated by AI match humanity’s artistic convention? In a society dominated by algorithmic technology, can genuine art exist?

Game Design II Final Project Spring 2018
‍This project was created by a team of 6 students who were divided into a series of departments.

Download game FOR FREE

•

Lunar Landing

Game designer & developer

Treasurable trash.

Unity 2D visual art project that involved exploring a lonely character’s existence on the moon through poetry and trash.

Lunar Landing is a hand drawn visual exploration game that involves clicking on game assets to unearth pieces of poetry. As the player explores the different illustrated objects, ranging between pieces of obvious trash and personal belongings, the narrator forces attention onto the question: What gives something value?

The players begins the game as a new participant of the Lunar Landing program, condemned to a life on the moon. In this futuristic world, Earth has run out of space and trash is shipped off to the satellite to sit in otherworldly landfills. The player's job is to sift through garbage and decide what holds enough value to return to Earth and what is truly trash.

game‍‍‍design

game
‍‍‍design