This is the third phase of this big project and I gladly worked with Anika. In this project I am working as the Art Director, responsible for the Graphic and Visual of this interaction.
The SDG we chose is Life Under Water.
“22% of indigenous New Zealand marine mammals are at risk of extinction."
1st Week
Through the research Anika has done in the previous assignment, there are three main reasons that causes the problem.
Landfill waste pollution
Ocean temperature increase and Global warming
Foreign invasive species
We chose landfill waste pollution from the three reasons and started on the ideation phase.
These followings are some sketches I did.
We wanted to use little man to indicate how the user can take action on helping the problem. However, we have decided to stick with the fishes because the idea is clearer and cuter. Also, me as the art director preferred using animals than men.
I also researched about different art styles and colour palettes online. After discussing with Anika we both agreed on using a cuter style.
2nd Week
We narrowed our ideas down to three of the ideas and focused on developing them.
Idea 1:
Items that can be food or trash will fall from the top of the screen. User have to press left and right keys to put them into either the trash can or the mouth of the fish.
Idea 2:
Food and trash will be falling from the top of the screen at random x-coordinates. User will have to control the fish to avoid eating the trash.
Idea 3:
(This is the hardest one to explain XD)
The ocean which is the background will be divided into two areas: the polluted area on two sides and the clean area in the middle. We have to click on the fish to change their swimming directions to prevent them from getting into the polluted area.
We thought about adding a level system to it. But after talking to the teachers, we have decided not to gamify it too much so we snatched that idea.
Here are some assets I drew for the three ideas. The three ideas are pretty similar which the assets can be shared among the three ideas.
For the sea creatures that we are using, I focused on the endangered species in New Zealand. The following is the list as well as where I get my inspiration from.
Maui Dolphin
Hector Dolphin
Killer Whale
Leopard Seal
Elephant Seal
New Zealand Sea Lion
Hoiho Penguins
In this week's catch up with the teachers we received some suggestions and the teacher thinks that Idea 3 is the most interesting idea. This helps the two of us who are confused between Idea 1 and 3 to make our final decision.
3rd Week
In this week, we focused on developing our final idea. And I created these two storyboards that is developed from two different perspective. One is on water surface, another one is underwater. We have also decided to add an end-screen to the loop.
I also did some background assets.
I was not satisfied by this appearance at all because it looks very dirty and messy. I discussed it with Anika and she suggested me to make a clear cut for the polluted area. This reminds me of that kind of abstract art where colour changes when there's a cut. Then I made these:
The blue coloured background represents the clean water and the other colours are different combinations for the polluted area. After discussion we have decided to use colour grey.
(the above contents are created after the catch-up)
During this week's catch up time with teachers, we made a lot of big changes.
Instead of constraining the fishes in the clean area, we should be constraining the trash, because the goal of this assignment is to urge people to act on problems.
The teacher also suggested us to may be turn the idea into having users to collect the trash instead of just keeping them in an area.
A great reminder from the teacher is that this is NOT a game. It might have similar aspects but it is not a game.
We thought about the teachers idea and we discovered that what the teacher was suggesting was actually a combination of our Idea 1 and Idea 3. Which we combined the two ideas in the coming week and started to develop more.
4th Week
We did most of the work and changes in this last week.
The following is the development of the background:
I added more and more details to it to make the background more rich and full.
I originally wanted to add some moving fish at the background, but it might distract users from the actual experience, so I discarded that idea.
We came up with this idea of making a mascot after seeing last week's end screen penguin.
These two are Hoiho penguins and Maori dolphins. I posted them on discord and most people find the penguin cuter and is more suitable as a mascot. So we decided to use a penguin as our mascot!
Before we finalised how our mascot looks like. We went through a few tests on how we should place the mascot in the screen.
I thought they both look kind of weird. Also it leaves a huge blank space at the top area which is something I really don't like. And then I thought it might look cute to have a swimming penguin and place it at the top area.
The followings are the final penguins after adjustments.
The upper line appears in the end screen with three status. Sad when there is too little trash collected; Fine when there is some trash collected; Happy when user was able to collect all the trash.
The bottom line appears in the game-play giving instructions and reactions to users whenever they are or are not able to collect the trash piece.
And this is how it is presented at the end.
