Professional portfolio
A selection of works featured at the top of the portfolio
Drivers of the Apocalypse is a bonkers action driving combat game set in the apocalyptic plains. You play as Artemis, a junior mercenary working for the hottest startup, Thunder Strike Force. Your job is to help your clients overcome their “problems” but then a personal tragedy strikes…
This is a game I am developing for fun, mostly alone on my free time after work. Nevertheless, the intent is to properly publish the game once it is finished.
Echoes of Somewhere is an experimental 2.5D point and click adventure game anthology series developed by a group of game industry veterans on their free time.
The project relies heavily on AI generated content and as such is an experiment in itself. We will be documenting the progress here in this development blog. For good or for worse.
Each episode in the series is about 1-4 hours of classic point-and-click gameplay in a new world with new characters. Even the art style will vary from episode to episode.
The episodes will be released for free one by one when completed.
Intermission, sweet rolls and hot drinks in the cafeteria! The post INTERMISSION appeared first on Echoes of Somewhere.
I was interviewed for XR AI Spotlight a few months back. here is the full interview. The post XR AI spotlight appeared first on Echoes of Somewhere.
A further Questions -podcast episode in regards to my AI presentation last year. The post Games Now! Podcast appeared first on Echoes of Somewhere.
I had created a very simple camera controller for the city hall interior scene. But it was not very usable in other scenes. So I rewrote the code and made it universal and a lot easier to use! The post Simple camera controller+ appeared first on Echoes of Somewhere.
I upgraded my rather simple footsteps audio system to a fully fledged surface type / character type retrieval setup that I can expand in the editor. The old system had hard coded arrays, but this new one is user editable directly in editor! The post Footsteps audio refactoring appeared first on Echoes of Somewhere.
In the first big puzzle hub, one of the non-linear storylines takes you to a hamburger restaurant. There will be a big, hamburger related puzzle in there! But this week, we talk about creating the AI assisted location. The post AI assisted location: Hamburger restaurant appeared first on Echoes of Somewhere.
With Magnific now being able to upscale all the way up to 16x I wanted to try closeup camera angles for the game. The post Closeup camera angles appeared first on Echoes of Somewhere.
I was working on the Steam Deck compatibility of the game this week and the main pain point was the hotspots. As I was fixing the code, I decided to try to make the hotspots animated! The post Animated hotspot icons appeared first on Echoes of Somewhere.
I am big into accessibility. It was now finally time to get started on accessibility options for Echoes of Somewhere. The post Accessibility options appeared first on Echoes of Somewhere.
Happy birthday! Echoes of Somewhere has now been in “active” development for a year. Lets look back on the year! The post Project 1 year anniversary! appeared first on Echoes of Somewhere.
Iron Danger is my debut PC/PS5/XBOX game as a game director.
It is a game all about maximising your actions in combat with the help of infinite redos and intuitive trial and error. It is basically a gamified combat sequence animation tool (so cool)!
Gamescom 2019 Best experience: Winner
Best creative achievement of the year 2020: Winner
Big screen game of the year 2020: Nominee
Finnish game of the year 2020: Nominee
Best of E3 2019: Nominee
A lot of games market themselves as being built around a “unique” mechanic. And while 90% of the time these mechanics are not in fact unique, every so often you get one that’s the real deal, and this tactical RPG with functional time travel is certainly one of ’em.
Iron Danger was released for PS5 and Xbox S/X in 2023. Gamepad controls were finally added to the game and I think this is the best way to experience the game.
Iron Danger is a tactical combat game with a unique time manipulation mechanic. A never before seen combination that blends the tactical depth of turn-based games with the exciting action of real-time games.
Tackle challenging encounters with your party of two characters, using a variety of skills and highly interactive environments.
Maybe you will set an enemy on fire and kick them into a grain field for a proper barbeque, or set up a trap and fell a tree on top of them. The options are endless and it is you who will be deciding your own approach!
The core of Iron Danger is its unique time control mechanic. You can rewind time for up to 5 seconds whenever you want, trying different strategies and combinations of moves until you find the right one for the task at hand.
The time manipulation allows us to combine real-time combat gameplay with controls from more traditional, tactical turn-based combat games. This gives tactical combat a puzzle-like element, as you can continuously keep trying new approaches to turn impossible odds to your advantage and synchronize the actions of your characters for the perfect outcome.
You will die, but you will not fail!
Iron Danger is set in a world of lofty fells, primeval forest, and placid lakes… as well as living gods and monsters of steel. The city of Kalevala, home of the humans who rebelled against the gods and forsook their protection, shines in the middle of this world, surrounded by towns, sea lanes and and woodlands under its protection.
But from the frozen north, a witch queen is leading her army on a quest for vengeance against the lords of Kalevala. Ancient ruins from the days when gods dwelled on the earth are opening to unleash forgotten powers, tempting humans and striving to overtake the world.
You’ll take on the role of Kipuna, a sharp-witted village girl, who becomes imbued with an ancient power that grants dominion over time and death. You must use your wits to control it as you’re drawn into the midst of a war between the city of Kalevala and the armies of the Northlanders driven by their witch queen Lowhee.
Your task is to master the power, in order to use it for mankind’s protection, while your enemies will seek to harness it in the service of total destruction.
Use unique time-rewind mechanics and experience a new take on tactical combat combining best aspects of real-time and turn-based combat.
Use highly interactive environment for your advantage to succeed against impossible odds.
Adventure in a world of steampunk fantasy and meet its unique inhabitants inspired by Finnish folklore.
Fight epic boss monsters on the path to fulfill your destiny.
No grinding; character progression pace is controlled by the story and every fight matters.
15+ hours of gameplay
PC Invasion – 90
“Iron Danger is a fun game that takes us to fantasy Finland and lets us play with time. This is a surprisingly good combination before you take interactive environments and the vibrant art style into account. If you want to play a fantasy RPG that’s lighter on the RP and heavier on G(ameplay), try this one out.”
DarkStation – 90
“From its inception to the execution, Iron Danger showcases a rare, coherent vision where everything comes together to form a unified experience, not least because of truly novel gameplay that holds it all together. I’m afraid that Iron Danger has spoiled other games in its genre for me. I can no longer imagine playing formulaic fantasy tropes with rigid combat and eternally repeated, tired systems.”
Player2 – 83
“Iron Danger feels like a breath of fresh air for CRPGs. While not a perfect game, its unique, time-based combat system is a pure joy to play with and worth the price of admission alone.”
Trailer for Quantum Break, showcasing some of the work we did for the cinematics in the game.
Quantum Break is a blockbuster game with time-amplified action and a suspenseful storyline brought to life in a way never done before by fusing gameplay and a gripping live action show. Time itself becomes fractured in a time travel experiment, Jack Joyce fights the secretive Monarch Solutions to put things right before it’s too late. The actions you take and choices you make shape your experience in the show, creating a new and unique entertainment experience.
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Real-Time Project: Nominee
In this presentation I describe the creation of the 3D-like rigging in Adobe After Effects to produce 2D animation with hand-drawn qualities for Angry Birds Toons.
Check out the end result while you are at it:
Adobe: How did Rovio Animation get started? Kemppainen: After Rovio’s amazing success in mobile gaming, the company decided to expand its offerings to include more entertainment and publishing offerings. I founded a studio in 2007 named Kombo, which Rovio purchased in 2010. I then became one of the co-founders of Rovio Animation and was responsible for creating an Adobe After Effects rigging system for the characters in the Angry Birds Toons cartoon. provideocoalition.com
Retry was the best thing I ever worked on at Rovio. A perfect game! It is a shame it can no longer be downloaded from Apple App Store. Thank god the soundtrack is available!
Retry is a free-to-play retro-styled side-scrolling video game developed by Rovio LVL11 and published by Rovio Entertainment.
A short animated film about 2 mail-robots that encounter an abandoned package. I was contacted by the director duo Mariko & Ismo after they had seen my music video Pieni ja Ihmeellinen. They loved its style and wanted to create an animated movie using the same visual style.
This time we went even bolder with matching various animation styles and we introduced traditional stop motion puppet animation and servo controlled robots. We also expanded our use of costumed live action elements as parts of puppets.
A music video for Retropop.
For the longest time I had this idea of a music video with very very small planets. I tried to shop it around for quite a while without finding a great song to make it for. Then Universal luckily had a song about small planets as well and the rest is history!
| Direction: | Jussi Kemppainen |
| Screenplay: | Lauri Konttori |
| Puppets and Miniatures: | Lauri Konttori, Jussi Kemppainen, Antti Kemppainen |
| Wardrobe: | Mirkka Kallio |
| Gaffer: | Toni Pasanen, Lauri Konttori |
| Grip: | Antti Kemppainen, Jyrki Kemppainen |
| Drawings: | Lauri Konttori, Tommi Ojala |
| Thanks: | Jyri Sääksjärvi, Tero Ahonen, Riitta Kemppainen Roosa Saarinen, Alex Keskitalo, Vanessa Riki, Markus Kallio Topi Kemppainen, Anna Kemppainen, Mikko Haapala, Arttu Kotisara |
Audience Choice Winner
These photos are from my archives from all the way back in 2007
In memory of Markus.
A music video for Zarkus Poussa. A story about a couple who can not stop fighting but can not break up either.
The first music video I have ever directed. This made me quit my then on-going game development career and go into video production for almost 10 years.
| Direction: | Jussi Kemppainen |
| Screenplay: | Jussi Kemppainen, Zarkus Poussa |
| Actress: | Minna Puolanto |
| Thanks | Jyrki Sukula, VIA ravintola |
Honorary Mention
