Grainspitz Surfing Goat Lab

GrainSpitz Surfing Goat Lab is a young Game Development Studio established by students at the University of Applied Sciences in Graz  

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We did it!

The booklet of our game is finished and we are very happy with the result. We would like to thank our teacher Maja Pivec, who offered us her knowledge and passion during her lectures. Thank you very much!

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Put me on the wall!

The poster for our game is ready to print! Do you like it?

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Tutorial

The player learns the ropes by going out into the forest for the first time after being introduced to Sebastian, his grandma, and the cottage Sebastian’s Grandparents live in. Grandma informs Sebastian and the player that grandpa has wandered off again. Shortly after entering the forest and learning the basic controls of movement and level transitioning, the player encounters grandpa in the first level. Whilst walking back, grandpa tells Sebastian about gathering tools, mushrooms, goats, and The Big One, thus teaching the games controls and goal to the player. They also encounter a basic puzzle, teaching the player the game mechanics.

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Navigation

Screens from the book-menu and the map-menu. 

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Mushrooms everywhere!

A few sketches of mushrooms from our game

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Goat

The faithful companion of the grandfather. She has come to him as a young goat and since then she has not left his side. Together they have experienced many adventures.

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Opi

The forest is his home and there he knows his way around. It is the place where he can also pursue his passion: ”Schwammerlsuchen“. The long beard in his face is always combed clean because he is very proud of it. When he is out in the woods, he never leaves his walking stick at home.

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Omi

A perfect example of a grandma. No one can fool her in the kitchen. The apron always ready around the hip, she serves delicious treats. The mushroom soup is her specialty. She is constantly sending her husband into the woods to search for mushrooms.

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Sebastian

A student who is visiting his grandparents. He does not care much for nature, but he has always been impressed by the knowledge of his grandparents about mushrooms. His grandfather shows him important things that an approaching man should be able to do, and his grandmother teaches him the basics in the kitchen.

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EYAwards

We attended the “EYAwards Winners Presentations” which where held at our University. They presented very cool and innovativ stuff! 

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Let us tell you a story

Our finished game story 

Sebastian is visiting his grandparents in their cabin in the woods, far up the mountains. On arrival, his dear grandma tells him his grandpa has wandered off into the woods, again for some ”Schwammerlsuchen“.Not only that, but he also keeps losing his valuable tools on his way, and has managed to strip the cozy old cabin to bare essentials. Once Sebastian has retrieved the grandpa from his walk, he discovers the man’s reason for his adventurous excursions. Grandpa has found nearly all the woodland mushrooms in his lifetime, big to small, common to unusual, but one still eludes him: The Big One. Sebastian decides to help his dear Grandpa, and sets out into the lush forest to gather lost tools, return runaway goats and register all the mushrooms on his ultimate quest to find the one fungus that has only been mentioned in tales of long forgotten wayfarers.

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Marketing Concept

Since our game promotes going out into the woods, experiencing the joy of ”Schwammerlsuchen“ and the forest where they grow, we decided to only launch a very reduced digital campaign and focus on print-out-media and advertising. The crucial parts besides our blog on tumblr – Instagram and Facebook – however, clearly are part of this campaign.

We will also launch a website with all the viable information about the game with an implemented social media feed. There are two regularly occuring posts planned per week and prior to release the frequency will go up to ensure nobody will miss it. Content ranges from artwork over humorous lines to pieces of wisdom from our beloved grandfather.

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Market Analysis

We really found a niche in case of WÅLD because there is only one serious competitor to mention and it‘s called ”Mushroom: Forest Walker“. It is a mushroom picker simulator where you are able to search, organize, trade and also use mushrooms for various things.

Although it has a similar learning factor, WÅLD and Forest Walker are way different. As mentioned before it‘s a simulator, focused on realistic graphics and physic engine.

WÅLD is a mystic world with a unique atmosphere that allows our gamers to immerse in an incredible world.

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Target Audience

Gamers can be broken down into various categories, depending on how much time they spend on gaming, or how much gaming influences their daily lives. 

Since WÅLD‘s main focus lies on collecting shrooms and learning the most important things about them, you clearly play the role of an achiever. Collecting every single fungus the game can offer, find out about every bonus or easter egg or handle every sidequest.

But we goat another one in the game: The Explorer.

They wander through our woods and don‘t focus on results. They go with the flow and enjoy the vibe. Making new discoveries without any competition is their passion and the perfect way to play WÅLD.

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It is never too late to learn!

Learning Outcomes

We want to compel people to learn more about mushrooms by offering an immersive, atmospheric experience and a solid story background. The educational part of the game is the book that the player gets from the grandfather character. It contains detailed information about different fungal species and serves as a compendium of the main collectible items. It is the core of the games learning experience and is not changing in difficulty, since the information is fed at a steady pace.

More subtle learning comes from the game environment, since the games collectible mushrooms are hidden in places in the levels that correspond to the locations their real world counterpart would be found in. For example, the player would find the Stinkmorchel in broad-leaved forest in the vicinity of rotting wood.

Finally, there is a reward system in place. After gathering a specific set of different mushrooms, the player unlocks a cooking recipe via the grandma character featuring the gathered fungi.

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Look out for mushrooms

There it is! The app-logo for our game.

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Pilz, Püz and Schwammerl

Always do your research!

Our Project Manager makes sure, that he is well informed about our game content.