Moonrise
UX Designer - 3D Interactive Demo
Solo Project - 4 weeks
Solo Project - 4 weeks
Who doesn't love werewolves? As a historical symbol, as a horror icon, as a power fantasy, and as many-layered metaphor, werewolves have something in them for everybody. You can imagine my disappointment, then, at the relative dearth of video games focused on these classic creatures. Yes, they have featured periodically as villains and occasionally as protagonists, but even then, in a medium centered on transporting the senses, there is no game that I know of which centers the transformative, alienating, empowering experience of existing as a werewolf. Thus, after brainstorming concepts for my next UX project, thinking up a sensory experience to capture in kinesthetic design, the choice was clear. I worked to create an experience highlighting the difference in perspective between the two forms, experiencing one envinroment through two viewpoints, each enhanced by their contrast with the other. I then placed this experience in a similarly dualistic environment, a pocket of nature in an industrialized world, its aspects more or less apparent to the players' different forms. Running development, I handled:
- Researching, developing, and proposing the project concept and design
- Designing and implementing controls and effects for three player states:
- Human
- Werewolf
- Transforming
- Creating an environment which would engage players aurally, visually, and physically in human and wolf forms
- Playtesting thrice and iterating upon controls, effects, and environment to achieve intended feel
Had I more time with this project, there are aspects which I would like to develop further (e.g. stock particle effects, abrupt color vision shift), and I have spent some time making adjustments to the demo. However, this is not the only aspect of the project which I have given further thought - the story concept stuck with me, and I have spent time building out the world and story, with a view toward perhaps turning this into a full game someday. To that end, I feel this project was a great jumping off point, and on its own this is a good demonstration of sensation-centric design, one which I have greatly enjoyed working on.
Contact me for a playable copy
Cover Images: Monika Thorpe, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Luc Viatour, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons
Luc Viatour, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons