HOME
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.
Role
Sole Visual Designer
Tool
After Effect, Premier pro, Illustrator, Procreate, Photoshop
Duration
6 weeks
Follow the journey of Fatu and help her bring her family back. Fatu has to change the past that ruined the present and go back home.
Character
After researching about 200 extinct animals, I have chosen the northern white rhinoceros as the main character of the game. Fatu is the name of the last Northern white rhinoceros, the name of the game's main character. Unfortunately, only two female individuals are left on the earth because of climate change, so it is technically extinct. However, the present time of Fatu might be the future of human beings when we stay the same.
When creating the character, I had to consider three things. Firstly, it should be extinct by climate change, and secondly, the character should be a terrestrial animal to make sense when designing the game map. Lastly, it should have a familiar form for the players. Therefore, I made Fatu walk with two legs instead of four to look like a human. However, I removed the arm to remove the aggression referenced from the game 'Journey'. I designed Fatu to make it look less like rhinoceros because extinction is not only a species problem, and to make players curious about Fatu and search for it.
The past of this game is the present where we live, and the present in the game is the devastated future we may have. I described the future only in red and black and the past in various colours to show the difference more evidently.
Fatu can move across the present and past and collect stars spread across the game.
When the pollution spreads, it changes the terrain and pollutes the environment. That gives Fatu a challenge when collecting the lights.
When Fatu collect all the lights, she can reach the core of the fossil fuel power plant and turn it into green energy.
Prototype
From the user testing, there is some feedback that there should be more explanation in the trailer to understand the game's story. In addition, loads of viewers think it is hard to understand the concept of switching between present and past, which is the essential concept of the game. So I made the transition more evident by setting the colour scheme and changing the game map vertically.
