Atlantic Drive
Mobile Game
Development
A mobile game designed to promote environmentalism whilst being engaging and fun
Project Type: Volunteer
Timeline: 12 Months
Role: Program Manager, Scrum Master, UI Designer/Graphic Designer, Programmer
Designed for: Android
Tools: Figma, Pro-create, VS Code, Github,
Discover
I took heavy inspiration from the hub-world of sonic rush adventure
Questions
I had many questions off the bat…
What aspect of the company’s mission should we focus on with our game
What type of game would be most accessible to our target audience
What would motivates those users to play the game?
Taking into consideration time constraints and the and abilities of all individuals working on the project, we opted for a classic, pixel style game that would be easy to learn and draw.
We did an anlysis of existing games in this style and how we could incorporate elements of them all
Understanding The project
I was tasked with making a game for Atlantic Pacific that aligns with the company’s mission
Brain storm Takeaways
Problem statement
DEFINE
Key Features & User Goals
In a brainstorming swarm, the team and I discussed ideas on how to incorporate the characters in the game, the gameplay itself, and how the information would be embedded into it to meet Reina’s needs and address the questioned identifie dint he discover section
We landed on the following:
Message
Collecting different trash items will display information about the impact of said item or behaviors associated with it to the player, upon first collection.
It will also have an information center in the hub world which rewards users for reading the information there. Each time a player picks a new item from the sea, they’ll be given facts about it
Behaviours
She’s passionate about animal conservatism and enjoys activities such as visiting the zoo and aquarium
She enjoys reading, and has a large imagination to boot
Full information about the gameplay can be found here
Accessibility
The game will be able to be translated, with options to toggle on/off visual aspects of the game (animations). Also decided to dedicate time on the navigation/user experience of them game which will be discussed below
I decided to create a persona to understand the motivations, frustrations and behaviours of my target audience
Meet Reina…
Motivation
She was drawn in by the design of the characters and the theme of the game
She was interested in learning more about sea environmentalism
She wants a fun, informative game to play on her commute to school
She doesnt have a lot of free time to play games because of school
She doesn’t have access to a powerful mobile device
Isn’t well acquainted with games and gets easily overwhelmed with complexity
Stakeholder Constraints
The company specified we should aim to appeal to kids aged 7-14. It must also include their mascots
Persona creation
A 14 year old student who has minimal experience playing mobile games. She hadn’t heard of Atlantic Pacific but was recommended the game by someone else.
Frustrations
Gameplay
As AP is a charity that train sea-survivalist skills and aids in sea search and rescue, we wanted the game to reflect that element of going into the sea to retrieve something.
Agreed on the idea of picking up trash from the ocean for points. Points can be used for upgrades and customizability of the characters
Pixel style to minimise complexity and hardware demand