Overview / Usage

AGRYOS: Recovering Eden is a third-person shooter with elements of a bullet hell where you play as Neziha, an adventurer fighting to recover the Branch of Eden from a failed space colony. Destroy hordes of robots with Neziha’s versatile arm cannon as you blast through this fallen AI-created society.

The story takes place in the AGRYOS Facility on the planet Axenum, a once-thriving AI civilization dedicated to creating a new home for humanity. Although Axenum failed its directive, its resources are still functional—especially its powerful agricultural starter, the so-called “Branch of Eden”. Your mission is to get it back!

Versatile Weapons

Choose between 3 distinct guns to destroy the once-dormant robots defending the Branch from outsiders. With various weapons such as the Disruptor, Carbine, and Scattershot, decide how you want to tactfully eliminate the threats as you use Neziha’s highly mobile thrusters to dash and leap around the massive AGRYOS Facility.

About the Team

AGRYOS: Recovering Eden was made by graduate students at SMU Guildhall as their Capstone project over the course of five months. The game was designed and produced by a diverse group representing a variety of cultures, nationalities, genders, and sexual identities.

Features

• Single-player experience: Kill hordes of dormant robots, dodging energy bullets
• Multi-use arm cannon: Choose between the Disruptor, Carbine, and Scattershot
• High mobility: Dash and double jump around the expansive rooms of the AGRYOS Facility

Methodology / Approach

Teamwork is a fundamental part of the educational experience at SMU Guildhall and is integral to our curriculum, as it allows students to work together in a creative atmosphere where they make design decisions and realize them in a meaningful way.

Students form interdisciplinary teams to produce three games based on the skills taught in their specializations Art Creation, Level Design, Production, and Software Development. Each team is organized with student leads and has a life cycle from concept greenlight to publication. The final outcome of each project is a tangible artifact that students can share with friends, family, and game industry professionals.

Capstone games are the final team projects created by each graduating class C30's Capstone projects, recognized on the following pages of this catalog, were developed over the last two academic semesters during the course of the graduates' studies. The projects included the largest team size and grandest design scope, resulting in a total conversion over approximately 18 weeks using commercial development tools and best practices.

We are very proud of our students' accomplishments and hope they bring you as much enjoyment as they bring us at SMU Guildhall.

Technologies Used

We used Unreal Engine 4 and a standard set of game development tools such as Adobe CC, 3DS Max, Maya, Substance Designer, Mudbox, ZBrush, and a wide range of audio authoring and runtime tools. Intel technologies included a variety of hardware CPUs for QA, compatibility testing, and production support kindly provided by Intel's Academic Program.

We made sure the game runs well on a wide range of Intel CPUs and Integrated Graphics in addition to discrete graphics cards. Primary development was conducted on Alienware M17 R4s featuring Intel i7 CPUs and augmented by a wide range of desktop systems, most of which were based on Intel hardware.

Hybridized production environment was facilitated in part by Intel NUCs attached to Zoom room systems which allowed remote team members to be integrated into the in-person dev studio seamlessly via telepresence.

Other links

• AGRYOS: Recovering Eden on Steam
• SMU Guildhall Student Work: "AGRYOS: Recovering Eden"