Salamander

‘Salamander’ is a very short 3D single-player survival game with narrative elements.  

Play as a salamander in an environment threatened by deforestation. Try your best to stay fed by consuming food, moist – by taking a dip in the water, and safe from invasive predatory snakes by attacking them with your spit ability or avoiding them using your dash ability to survive!  

Are there any chances of survival or are you doomed to fail? 

‘Salamander’ was an entry into the Games Fleadh 2025 student competition under the theme ‘small world’ organised by Technological University of the Shannon (TUS) Thurles Ireland and won the award ‘Best in User Interface Design’. The game available in this page is an updated version of the game entry. 

What the game tries to get across is the impact that human interference has on the environments of animal species, ultimately leading to the increased risk of these animals being endangered due to their liveable habitats becoming smaller and less prevalent. 

The game was developed by a team of six people:

Dorota Kaminska – UI & Level Design lead. Designed UI for the Salamander’s statistics and abilities. Worked on narrative in collaboration with Kristiana. Author of the cutscene’s idea. 

Gabrielius Mizutavicius – Lead Programmer in Game Mechanics and secondary Technical & Tools Programmer. Developed the end cutscene in collaboration with Nikita and Reine. Worked on player’s perspective in collaboration with Dorota, Kristiana and Reine. Developed the game’s trailer. 

Kristiana Latkovska – Author of game idea, Narrative and Audio Design lead. Gathered, edited and developed game audio. Created the level in Unity in collaboration with Reine, Dorota & Sean. Performed QA testing. 

Nikita Solomatin-Yunakov – Team leader, secondary Artist. Worked on the Salamander model and animation, as well as the cutscene in collaboration with Reine and Gabrielius. 

Reine Carolan – Lead Artist and secondary UI & Level Designer. Designed and created the main game UI with input from Dorota and Sean. Developed level design iterations in collaboration with Dorota. Developed the salamander’s character model sheet and worked on visual development. 

Sean Burke – Product Owner, Lead Technical & Tools Programmer. Organised a GitHub repository workspace. Implemented game systems and enhanced the level created and designed by Reine, Dorota and Kristiana. Collaborated with everyone and assisted them in completing work. 

Used 3rd Party Content: 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HMd_xc62IefOj2HUNk68x_hEf82Os1D8Kx5J2ZZE-CI/...