Welcome to Erik Favian Gonzalez's Website

I believe that above all else, games must entertain our players, keeping them engaged with our team past the game. I design with the idea of an assignment, games exist for the audience and not myself. My process centers on the idea of "push and pull", the right kind of risk to create a rewarding gameplay loop. My personal tastes lie in horror and high skill ceiling games, because the tension itself is the fun. Where else does fear bloom joy?

But first, why not take a look at some of my recent projects? You'll find a fuller list in the taskbar above.

Recent Projects

Snapshot of Gameplay

'Ruin Game' (Title TBD) is a personal project being developed post-graduation, utilizing Unreal Engine V5.4.4. This project began with the simple thought of designing a game where combat is not the primary focus in order to put myself on a different path, leading to brainstorming on mechanical ideas I'd not reach otherwise. This developed into the core idea of Ruin Game, exploring the evidence of a civilization long past with the core theme of discovery guiding the design, guiding a player from wary wayfinder to dexterous speedrunner of a dynamic level that reacts to the order the player solves its puzzles in.

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Logo for Project Railgun, showing snippet of title screen.
Logo for Primal Edge, a work in progress senior project.
Snapshot of Gameplay

Primal Edge is a UE5 action game concept developed as my Senior Project at CSU East Bay, existing as a 5-10~ minute level vertical slice. The core loop design defines itself around making your way into to begin combos, with two distinct ‘states’ to combat as you hit or whiff attacks. This forms the basis of its core risk/reward loop, seeing players transition from careful strategizing to ruthless payoff in combo chaining.

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Snapshot of Gameplay

Project RAILGUN was a UE5 project developed during my study at Cal State East Bay, in collaboration alongside Katelyn Ang, Emmet Beebe Foley, and Yuhtoku Fujikake. It is a short game concept that was conceived to focus upon high speed movement, combined alongside a signature 'Railgun' that one-hit kills any enemy to define the experience loop.

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Logo for Project Railgun, showing snippet of title screen.

Recent Internship

During my time at SportsMedia Inc as a Intern, I contributed primarily to the development of the Unreal Engine 5.4 'EVOC' (Emergency Vehicle Operations Course) project, focusing on gameplay systems producing 15+ Blueprint actors. I collaborated closely with my team lead Xavier and the rest of the department to help translate our design concepts into the frameworks of a playable project.

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Logo for SportsMedia Inc.