Home - Case study
Role
Sole Visual Designer
Duration
6 weeks
Tool
After Effect, Premier pro, Illustrator, Procreate, Photoshop
Brief
Create a game that educates, mobilises and empowers players and plays communities to tackle climate change and make a difference.
Overview
Home is a survival adventure game about a baby rhino facing extinction due to climate change. It is the story of this baby rhino going back to the past and changing the fossil fuel power plants into eco-friendly power plants one by one and bringing back her family.
Game Trailer
The design process
Discover
Competitive Analysis
I decided to investigate games with social messages and how they deliver messages. So I have looked into these games: Plastic Island, Endling, and Alba.
Plastic Islands naturally tell you how to eliminate plastic garbage islands in the sea. In addition, this game naturally teaches people how to protect the environment by making them memorise what recycling waste is or not.
Alba is a game made in Ustwo game. It makes the players discover new bird species throughout the game, naturally making them learn ecologism. However, I was worried that this might be boring to players, but animal crossing and other games constantly reward players so that they don’t feel repetitive.
Endling is also an excellent example of how you can deliver the message in games. The game's main storyline is about a fox family trying to survive humans and find a cub who is taken from them. As the game chooses the fox's perception, players can objectively see what humanity has been doing to nature.
Data Collection
I searched how to change the perception of the environment, which was one of the critical points in the brief. In addition, many data have shown a common idea that anthropocentrism must first be solved to solve these environmental issues. Anthropocentrism is a way of thinking that humans are at the centre of everything and that anything can be sacrificed for humans. Unfortunately, much of nature is sacrificed by that way of thinking. The brief said that the greatest enemy of climate change is human selfishness. Ecologism is the alternative way of thinking. Ecologism is a way of thinking centred on nature, not humans, and it is said to be a way to solve many problems of environmental pollution caused by humans in the long run. Based on this information, I investigated how to change people into ecological values.
Define
User Persona
Sam is a 25-year-old designer. He heard about the climate change issue but needs more time to act on it. He knows using too many plastic bags is bad for the environment, but he doesn't have time to use reusable containers in his busy day. Also though climate change is a huge issue, it is not affecting his life that much now. He needs more motivation to mobilise for climate change.
Game concept
Develop
Wireframe
Design System
I used a Josefin slab font to give a clean but lovely playful feeling. I first thought of using a serif font, but it looks too classical and luxurious, which is different from the vibe of this game. So to add a bit of modern vibe, and warmth, I chose the Josefin slab.
I used a different colour scheme for the past and the present to make them contrast. At first, I tried black and white for the present, but it might confuse the audience that the present is the past. So I tried out several colours that look like toxic and empty. And for the past, I used blue and green to make it look eco-friendly and natural but used red as an accent colour so that the player would think these two worlds are connected.
Prototype
Deliver
User Testing
Test objectives
To see the trailer communicates the concept of the game
To see if the audience feel bored or preachy
If there is anything else to change
Questions
Do you get this game is about Climate change
How can I make this game(video) more concise?
Do you think this game will make you mobilise to tackle Climate change? If no or yes, please tell me the reason