What is Vivarium?

Vivarium is a beautifully drawn and animated experience in which the player is whisked away into a magical town to relive their summery days as a child. The game draws inspiration from classic adventure games, and aims to rekindle incredibly specific vibes and feelings inspired by Ghibli Animation films, as well as several other Japanese animated films from the 80s and 90s. Josh connected with the project through GUMBO, and stayed with them for a period of three months as the game’s main developer during that time.

Role

Josh was brought on for a brief period at the start of the project’s development cycle to refine the current game build, as well as build a series of tools for the team’s animators and designers to use throughout the development process. His day to day involved working with several different systems such as gameplay programming, dynamic audio & music systems, procedural animation systems, shader programming, and lighting & rendering.

Most of his work revolved around refining the game in its current state. As a short term collaborator, Josh had to get comfortable with a project that was already in mid-flight. This required a hands on approach with the current team to ensure the process went smoothly. Josh drew on his project management experience to assist, and helped to create a wonderful feature set and demo.

After his work on the demo was complete, Josh moved on to other projects. He and the team were more than satisfied with the progress they had made together. Vivarium is currently in production.