Benjamin

“For a client, we made a series of atypical rooms where the player was subjected to a loss of sense and orientation”

Benjamin Bertelone is technology director. At Kryptex, he conceives all the electronic mechanisms that will allow the game scenario imagined by the designers to take shape. He talks about his favorite projects, both in terms of technical aspects and player immersion.

What is the role of the technical director in the design of escape and adventure games?

My role begins when the designers start the pre-project study. During this stage, they tell me their ideas of mechanism and I intervene to guide them on what is or is not feasible. Then, they implement these mechanisms in their scenario, and I make the technical choices in order to make what they have imagined concrete and real: buttons, identification technologies… Once the technical choices are made, I organize the project and take care of its technical management, from placing orders to distributing tasks within my team.

What do you like about designing a game?

When I graduated from engineering school in 2016, I developed my business in immersive entertainment and escape game before liquidating. I’m interested in the scenario but I really like the technical part of a game, how to realize what the creatives have imagined, and design mechanisms that are generic enough to adapt over time to all our projects. I’m an electronics engineer, so I design the electronic boards we use, but I’ve also been trained in development, so these two skills allow me to think about the overall architecture of the projects.

What are the projects you are most proud of?

For The One Escape in Paris, we realized Chemical Hallucinations at Dr. Grant’s with a series of really atypical rooms. In the first room, the player was subjected to a loss of sense and orientation with a floor that turned on itself. In the second room, all the furniture was fixed to the ceiling and the entire room was inverted. The players then arrived in a third room where the floor fell 10 cm, just enough to feel the effect of the fall. It was very interesting in terms of technique and player immersion. For the same client, we created a room inspired by L’Orient Express with very advanced train decorations. All the walls were made of wood veneer. All the windows were screens, which projected the scrolling scenery of the train. Vibrators have been incorporated into the floor to give the impression that the train is moving along the tracks and passing through.

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