Espial is a stealth-platformer game with a first person perspective where the player has to run and jump on the ceiling of a train station in the early 50’s to follow the steps of her targets and take pictures of them.

With this game we wanted to transmit the vertigo and adrenalin of parkour mixed with the world of spies and cold-war. In the game the player takes the role of a spy that has to follow a suitcase. But this won’t be easy, the suitcase will be exchanged from person to person in a crowded train station and in order to keep his anonymity the spy is confined to the celling of the train station. The player has two goals: to keep track of each exchange with the suitcase by taking pictures of the moment, and to follow the suitcase until it reaches its final destination (one of the three trains).

From a game design perspective, I had to come out with some of the mechanics of the game as well as discuss ideas from other members of the team. As a level designer I had to make sure that the ceiling level was both challenging but also approachable for the player and that it felt playful enough to encourage re-playability. This was achieved through a lot of playtesting and iterations.

This project was developed in collaboration with Carolina Bermejo, Simone Chelo, Liva Stubbe and Leonard Maxim.