The artists and I brainstormed some artstyle ideas, with our Pinterest board, the first mindmap result and the client meeting the week before we had a better understanding of what we wanted to make. I wouldn't personally start on the UI art quite yet as I'll base this on the art of our game rather than ideas, but I still wanted to be part of the process.
Artstyle brainstorm result:
Tiny characters-Big environment ( Like Grounded; It takes two)
hybrid humanoid animal characters (like animals/spirits from ATLA)
One of my ideas was chosen during our client meeting, which meant I already had some idea of how to design the narrative. I used a template I made myself during my minor on storytelling as a base and wrote down the premise, character goal and progression goal. I used my initial idea from the brainstorming and expanded it to have more of a story.
MC (Main Character) receives a quest: All the realms in the universe are in disarray. Each realm lacks a key social skill and without it, the realm is lost. They need someone to save them and MC is the hero they need. MC is special, they are smart, empathetic and most importantly a social expert, however, what they lack is the power of confidence to go out into the world. MC needs to travel through the realms, in each realm investigate the core of the issue and teach them the social skill they lack. They meet many different creatures along the way and as MC teaches others they also gain valuable insights themselves and grow their confidence. After the realm is saved MC is rewarded with a key/charm/token, upon collecting all they’ve fulfilled their quest and become the new keeper of the universe. Creatures in all moral alignments attend the ceremony and can tell MC how they impacted their lives.
I wanted to use the Hero's Journey for our story as it's a tested and true method for storytelling. I knew the first level "Introduction" would always be level 1, which would serve as ACT 1, but the other levels could be shuffled around in any order depending on the curriculum of the school. This means ACT 2 would consist of the remaining 4 levels and ACT 3 would be the aftermath and conclusion of the game.
I started on the next level on the list: Giving and Receiving Compliments. I researched how people generally struggle with compliment giving and receiving and how to remedy these difficulties. In this early phase, I wanted to only make a setup so I could receive feedback from the team and our project lead Fin Rovers.
Over the holiday, we received documents of the curriculum from our client that would be used alongside our game. I was able to make some iterations based on this, but my own research already fit the curriculum very well, so I didn't have to make many adjustments.
We held a team meeting to talk about the first concept art and game mechanics, here I was also able to share what I worked on so far regarding the narrative. After the meeting, I talked with Fin to implement some ideas he had as well: collectable sidekicks and a boss in each level.
Iterations of the introduction and compliments levels based on curriculum, meetings and feedback.
Aside from the Narrative and brainstorming I also worked on my learning goals a lot this sprint, After receiving feedback from Hester and talking about my goals in the first landing with Rob, I asked for help formulating what I really wanted to achieve during IMT&S from Rob. After this meeting, I felt more confident about my learning goals and was able to address Hester's feedback as well. My adjusted goals are better measurable and give me achievable goals to work towards.
My extended learning goals are:
During IMT&S, my main goal is to increase my employability as a narrative designer by gaining experience and improving my craft. I want to do this by deepening my experience in narrative design and implementing it in serious games. I will develop a clear understanding of the objectives and goals of the serious game and apply this to the narrative design. I want to apply the hero’s journey to improve the immersive experience of the user. Finally, I want to research how narrative design influences gameplay.
During IMT&S, my main goal is to improve my UI/graphic design using Adobe Illustrator and learn to apply it in the context of a game. I will do this by learning how to create fitting UI designs for different products. I want to learn how to match UI design to the artist’s art direction by communicating and collaborating. I will go through the steps of moodboarding, stylesheet and designing in Adobe Illustrator. I additionally want to work on the logo design for the game using customized typography.
During IMT&S, my main goal is to become proficient in using Figma as a tool for UX design. I will follow an interactive Figma course from Befront and a Figma UX design course by a professional UX designer. I will complete the assignments and projects provided in these courses to deepen my understanding of UX design principles, Figma's features, and best practices. This will enable me to efficiently create high-quality UX designs using Figma that I can apply to IMT&S projects and any work I do in the future.
During IMT&S, my main goal is that I want to streamline my work process: work smarter, not harder. In previous projects I’ve had the tendency to overwork myself at the cost of my health and sanity, therefore I want to identify where I go overboard by analyzing my work routine to find where this negatively impacts my health. For this, I will look into how to implement a hybrid workflow that doesn’t jeopardise a qualitative project outcome. I need to learn to set boundaries for myself to protect myself.
Overall I accomplished a lot this Sprint and the team and I made some great progress for BeeYou.