Digital projects
Below you will find all the noteworthy digital projects I have worked on – starting from the most recent and going backwards through time. Most have videos featuring gameplay and a few are available for download. All projects were made with Unity.
December 2021
In the blue hour of twilight
MAIN ROLE: Programmer, Writer and Sound Design
For my bachelor-project I teamed up with my good friend Albert Christoffersen to create a genre-defying game, with a strong story, unlike anything I’d done before. In the Blue hour of Twilight a monk of the 16th century isolates himself deep in the woods, trying to get close to his god. His brothers provide him with food and in total solitude he must wait until the time is right and the word of god flows through him.
Full Playthrough | Download the game here
This project was a huge achievement for both my and my partner. About an hour in length and fully playable from beginning to end, this project was without much compromise. We were both immensely proud of both the visuals, gameplay and story. We tried to create something that was completely outside the norm, challenging what constitutes a game. I was in charge of all scripting and implementation as well as the sound design. This project was a massive challenge, but I learned a huge amount and feel like this was the next level for me as a developer.
Team
Jakob Bang & Albert Christoffersen
Concept and Idea
Manuscript
Environmental Design
Narrative Design
Voice Acting
Jakob Bang
Programming
Implementation
UI Design
Sound Design
Animation
Albert Christoffersen
3D modelling
Texturing
Visual Concepting
Vocal Mixing
Albert Christoffersen and
Aske Søltoft
Music, Theme and Concept
Aske Søltoft
Music Production and Arrangement
Aske Søltoft and
Frej Darger
Punk Song – All I dream about you
Martin Christoffersen
Woodblock Illustrations
Gallery
June 2021
Numinous - Remake
MAIN ROLE: Solo Project
For my end-of-the-year exam I decided to revisit a group project and remake the main sequence using the available assets. In this remake, the story centers around a young sickly boy on the verge of being rejected from his tribe. His poor health has made him unable to provide for the community, so in a last-ditch effort his fathers sends him to the ruins where a “god” resides. If he can pass the trail, it will prove his worth in the eyes of his tribe and he will be allowed to stay.
Full Playthrough
I decided to remake this project because I wanted to try my hand at creating a story within the universe myself. I thought that the original version of the project had too large a gap between the gameplay mechanics and the story, to the point where they actively made each other worse. To alleviate this, I almost removed the gameplay entirely. I wanted to try my hand at creating a tightly scripted sequence, which I had never done before. The dream-like sequence lends elements and inspiration from similar sequences like the ones found in Dying Light, Metro 2033 or Control. The goal was to create a feeling of unease and powerlessness. I think it succeeds in most areas and was a fun challenge.
Team
Jakob Bang
Scripting
Narrative Design
Sound Design
Level Design (Dream)
Voice Work
VFX & Lighting
Samuel Matthiesen (Original Project)
3D modeling
Procedural Texturing
Level Design (Ruins)
Story World
Jacky Lai (Original Project)
3D modeling
Texturing
Gallery
May 2021
Numinous - Art Direction
MAIN ROLE: Project Director
Numinous is latin for “Arousing spiritual or religious emotion”. This project was a collaborative effort between the Master and Bachelor students at DKA, wherein students of different levels could get experience with working in formalized teams. Members of each team were given specific roles within the team, and the concept was developed based on the theme: “Junk”. I was the director for this project and was in charge of all scripting and sound design as well.
Read more about the project on Itch.io | Watch full playthrough
Working with a team of strangers is always interesting. It can be difficult to get a feeling for everyone’s skill-level and as a director you will inevitable be surprised – one way or the other. I wanted to distance myself from the story and worldbuilding on this project, as I am usually in charge of those elements. Instead I focused on leadership, scripting and sound design to improve my skills and learn something new. We only had two weeks to create the project and overall were very pleased that it managed to come together. Though the overall gameplay experience wasn’t exactly perfect, the visuals were impressive and established mood well.
Team
Jakob Bang
Project Direction
Sound Design
Scripting
Samuel Matthiesen
3D modeling
Procedural Texturing
Level Design
VFX and Lighting
Story World
Jacky Lai
3D modeling
Texturing
Mads Arvedsen
Level Design
Narrative Design
Sejr Thomsen
Story
Manuscript
Character Design
2D Art
Felix Schumann
Concept Art
2D Art
Gallery
December 2020
Gruppen fra Bælte - RigsHospital collaboration
MAIN ROLE: Programmer, Narrative & Game Designer
This project was a collaboration between DKA and Rigshospitalet. The case was based around older dialysis-patients and the mental/physical strain they experienced going through dialysis. This project was an attempt to provide stimulation, as they were limited physically by the machines. The game combined familiar pen-and-paper puzzles with a digital companion app that would provide story, hints, mood and save their progress.
Watch Gameplay Here
This project was primarily an attempt to combine the digital and physical in a new way. The art style was chosen to reflect the serious nature of the story, and we decided to mix 3d and 2d for a unique look that would set it apart. In general the game was incredibly hard to test as the pandemic was affecting the country severely at the time. The patients’ weak health made it too risky to visit them for testing, so we blindly worked without feedback. The resulting product was interesting, but had a lot of gameplay issues that might have been alleviated with player-testing. Though I stand by the visuals and mood present in the digital component – this was also where my interest in sound design began.
Team
Jakob Bang
Scripting
Puzzle Design
Story and Narration
Sound Design
Level Design
Rosa Holst Friholm
3D modeling
Texturing and Shaders
Puzzle Design
Sofia Holm Poulsen
Character Design
2D art
Puzzle Design
Gallery
June 2020
Social Distance Train
MAIN ROLE: Solo Project
For this project, all students were tasked with creating something entirely on their own – following the theme: “Social Distance”. For my project, I wanted to create an experience which simulated the anxiety associated with social distancing and the pandemic. Drawing on personal experience, I focused on public transportation and being trapped in a crowded train. This was also an opportunity for me to work with the physical camera found within Unity for the first time.
The project was quite successful. I had to get creative with the visual style as I had almost no experience creating 3D models. This was my first solo-project and I wanted to make it a personal story. The start of the pandemic was anxiety-inducing for many people, including myself. Not precisely knowing the dangers or how careful one should be, the simple act of traveling by train was intense and uncomfortable. I had 3 weeks to create an experience that encapsulated this experience and I believe I was succesful. Though it was quite short.
Gallery
May 2020
Sophoria - Art Direction Project
MAIN ROLE: Project Director
The Art Direction Project was a collaboration between Masters and Bachelors, where everyone got to work within a formalized team structure. All projects were based on the book by Italo Calvino called Invisible Cities, where each group had to choose a city to recreate. This project was an interpretation of Sophoria – The carnival city.
This was my first experience with leading a large team and all the troubles that came with it. Most teams consisted of a director, concept artist, 3D artist, designer and technical artist – but for some reason our group ended up with me as director and five 3D artist of varying skill-levels. It was incredible stressful to lead this team as a lot of the creative responsibility was placed solely on me. Every mistake I made would affect the team directly and set us back or result in wasted effort, so I was forced to work late and fix it. Overall it was an intense but incredible learning experience. All future projects I’ve been a part of were affected by my experiences with this team and I’ve strived to avoid making the same mistakes again. This project also gave me my first experience of leading a team that needed strict supervision, rather than a flat structure. I can’t stress enough how important it is to get a feeling for the teams needs and preferences before starting a project together.
Team
Jakob Bang
Project Direction
Sound Design and Voices
Scripting
Concept Design
Level Design
Kaspar Dahl
3D Artist
Texture Artist
Tech Artist
Sophie Pi
Concept Artist
3D Artist
Michelle Mortensen
Character Design
Graphic Design
3D Artist
Nicolai Brunn
3D Artist
Tomasz Wieloch
3D Artist
Gallery
December 2019
Flat Fights
MAIN ROLE: Programmer and Game Design
Flat Fights was my first digital project at the Design Academy. Partnering up with two of my classmates, we opted to try and recreate the wonky style found in classic flash games like Invader Zim, Dad’n’Me, etc. Especially the art style and backgrounds were the focus, as these often oozed with style and charm. Flat Fights is a simple 1 vs 1 platformer, where two flatmates fight over who gets to keep the apartment.
My first project at DKA. At this point in time, I was still only comfortable working with 2D in Unity. The game is extremely simple and held together with chewing gum. Buggy physics and many visual artifacts around the characters, sprites, and props. However, it still has some charm and was fun to work on – for what it was.
Team
Jakob Bang
Scripting
Implementation
Game Design
Søren Tang
Character Design
Art Style
Animation
Sound
Splash Art and Posters
Rune Forchhammer
Background Art
Art Style
Gallery
December 2018
up above
MAIN ROLE: Art, Story and Game Design
Up Above was my final project at Vallekilde Højskole. We had free reigns to explore whatever type of project we found interesting and my group decided on creating something that was completely different from what we usually would play. We wanted to make a game that was as relaxing as possible; where the player wasn’t pushed forward by conflict or the threat of failure, but rather their own curiosity.
We were all very inexperienced on this project and it shows. The game was buggy and hard to understand, but still a neat little experiment. I remember a consulting teacher playing it and telling us that it didn’t count as a game. Looking back, this project was a great lesson in what polish and execution means to an idea. Wanting to make a relaxing zen-like experience has its merits, but if the execution isn’t perfect the whole thing falls flat and doesn’t provide the intended experience. If one can look past the clunky bugs and enjoy the atmosphere, there is definitely something here of value – however small that value is.
Team
Jakob Bang
Design and Story
Sound design
Art
Mads Nielsen
Programming
Design
Animations
Marcus van der Weij
Programming
April 2018
Blink - Nordic GameJam
MAIN ROLE: Narrative Designer
This game was my debut! The first real game I worked on with other people. I came up with the story and concept upon hearing the theme: Breaking Point. The game itself is an experimental interactive story about loneliness and being unable to communicate. It was put together in a very short time, but managed a pretty strong visual style that still holds up.
Download the game on Itch.io | Read the article here
I showed up at Nordic Game Jam in 2018 with zero experience creating games. As everyone was mingling and looking for team members, I started talking with one of the volunteers. I pitched my idea for a story and he liked it well enough to help me find other people who could be interested. The team that was put together was great and for a while I thought I had reached the peak of my gamedev career as a teenager. I was deeply honored that so many people had come together to create my story. It was an amazing experience and a pleasant introduction to the games industry, which I hope to experience again. I am truly grateful to the members of my team for being welcoming and supportive. It was a lot of fun.
Team
Jakob Bang
Manuscript
Narrative Design
Voice acting
Murray Somerville
Art Direction
2D Art
Jan Kanty Janiszewski
Programming
Game Design
3D models
Marcus Teller
Programming
Music
Jakob Holm
Programming
Mathies Wiencke
Programming
Sound