For the Interactive Design workshop, we had to work in groups to create a solution to a problem given to us by post-it notes. I worked with Victoria, Crow and Tabitha to come up with ideas for the chosen four prompts: Asian, touch-screen, adventure and science.
To plan the ideas out, we created a mind map.
As a group we decided to further develop the idea of creating some sort game that is adventurous and scientific. After some discussion, we started working on using the periodic table as a base for the game, taking little inspiration from a current game: Pokémon.
Victoria did the research while I helped to refine the details, typing the information of the elements into a document in the style of a character sheet almost. We chose the game style to be a 3D world environment with the character being 2D. At first wee were going to have a building as the world, with different levels but later changed this to being a bunch of floating islands as the levels to the world.
Next we decided on how each element from the periodic table would appear like and begin thinking of the statics of each move, still taking inspiration from Pokémon to help lay the basis of it. As a group, we agreed that each number for the elements would equal to certain aspects to the creatures in the game. For example, we chose the atomic number to represent the size of the element; the mass number is equal to the strength of the element and its moves during battle; and the level of reactivity that the element has to certain things to equal the appearance of the creature, meaning the bigger the reaction is the scarier appearance of the creature.
Once we had this laid out, we chose 12 elements as our examples to demonstrate these numbers as well as to start creating a visual for the creature corresponding to the elements. The chosen 12 were:
- Hydrogen
- Sodium
- Magnesium
- Copper
- Iron
- Carbon
- Helium
- Oxygen
- Radon
- Iodine
- Cesium
Using the atomic and mass numbers of the elements, Victoria was able to figure out statistics for each element creature.
Using previous research, we wrote down if the elements were solid, gas or liquid along with the appearance it gives, and other factors we thought would be useful to help create the creatures. We placed the post-it notes on the wall in order that matches the statistic sheet to keep order of our idea.
As Victoria and I were finalising the information about the elements, Tabitha had drawn out the flow chart for the game to show how the game would play, what options each button and choice of the game would lead to etc. to add some dimensions to the flow chart and make to more interesting, Tabitha decided to add some information and illustrations on post-it notes.
Once we had majority of the information we needed, Crow and Victoria started to design the appearance of each element creature, while Tabitha created a sheet to example the basic idea of the entire game and I began the design for a visual of the 3D world for the game to take place in.
The character designs:
The title design and information sheet of the game:
Finally as we started to finish the game design, we created a customer profile to show example of who would be interested in creating or buying the game, as well as a 3D model of how the game would look like on a touch-screen device such as a Nintendo DS, IPad, phone etc.