Our applied games group project for my 2nd year of Digital Arts and Entertainment was the educational game Five Saves The Universe. It was created so that kids from the age of 6 to 14 could learn about traffic signs and their applications.
The project managed to get 1st place on Rookies 2024 as the Best Student Mobile Game of the year.
My role in the project was game design, character and UI/UX design. Later on UI animation.
CHARACTER DESIGN
First I redesigned the pirates to something more mechanical and fish like. The pirate on the right-most was chosen to be in the game as the basic enemy.
Captain Smog the villain of the game needed some redesign too. To make him look more greedy, cool and to connect him with smog I added some accessories and the pipes on his uniform. The original can be seen on the left and my version of him on the right.
For Five the superhero, I changed his original design from an adult to a kid, to be more relatable to children. His uniform was also transformed into more of a biking set with shorts and a T-shirt instead of the full body suit on the original. Both images are my concepts for him.
UI/UX DESIGN
The UI on the left is the oldest variation of the elements, it changed into more of a digital style, which can be seen on the right. We delved deeper into the space saving story so this choice stayed.
Some of the Menu UI elements however like the planets stayed more illustrative to be more interesting and exciting as you unlock them.
I also created the title screen for the game using the new visual and story elements we came up with.
Old concept can be seen on left for the working title.
Reworked final design can be seen on right for the final product.
GAME DESIGN
For the game design I helped the team find a base game play loop, combining our ideas into a cohesive game. Later working on the different signs and mechanics with Theodor Utka my co-worker in this. After we finished the prototype I specialized more in UI/UX and Theodor took over Level design.
