Biome Blocks Game

Project Overview

Team Members: Jessica Feng, Anais Lupu, Stephen Nachtsheim, Viola Yu, Amy Zhu
Client: Michael Corrin, University of Toronto
Industry: clinical research, education
Audience: grade 8 and 9 students
Type: interactive web game
Tools: Figma, Unity, Blender, Adobe Creative Cloud
Timeline: 4 months (2023)
Role: Lead Storyboard Visual Designer, Lead Unity Designer, 3D Production Artist

Biome Blocks is a 3D interactive game that educates players about prehistoric environmental conditions that contribute to animal life and extinction. This game intends to introduce these concepts through play-based learning, allowing the user to actively modify the environmental conditions, explore the resulting environment, and gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of the interconnected elements of a biome.

Specifically for our prototype, we focused on a module about the Stegosaurus, an extinct dinosaur species which was found in the Morrison formation during the Late Jurassic period. The goal of this project was to create the design documentation and build an application for this first module that employs narrative techniques into an interactive storytelling game.

Design Solution

Project Workflow
This team-based project employed an iterative design process that focused on understanding the end users, researching the science, prototyping the application, and developing a robust and technically sound final product. Tasks were delegated through a hierarchical system, with all aspects of 2D, 3D, and Unity development being coordinated and led by their respective leads. My roles were as the lead storyboard visual designer and lead unity designer, with a supporting role as a 3D production artist.

Ideation
Our team used Miro as our main collaborative platform for project meeting minutes, ideation, research, storyboarding, and gameplay concept development.

Research
The main theme of Biome Blocks involves the interaction of components within a biome in order to form a condition suitable for life. For the chosen hero of our prototype, the Stegosaurus, a literature search was conducted on the natural history, science, and environmental factors of the dinosaur's specific biome. The findings from our research directed the flora, fauna, and terrain of the overall visual design for our 3D environment to accurately reflect the environment and biome in which the Stegosaurus lived. Further considerations to the game content, level of complexity, and interaction of different environmental factors applied to the final gameplay were also adjusted to suit the grade 8 and 9 audience.

Gameplay Storyboard
As the lead storyboard visual designer, after establishing the framework of our gameplay, I created this storyboard which integrated our gameplay concept art with the user journey.

Wireframes
These are the user interface wireframes for Biome Blocks at each stage of gameplay. Labels indicate the core functionality and features of the game UI.

3D Models
All 3D assets were modelled in Blender using a low-poly style. My role as a 3D production artist was to model two of the conifer tree species for our project environment. Both the monkey tree (left) and the araucarioxylon (right) were well researched in the literature review stage and modelled based on reference images for accuracy. For the materials, a procedural method consisting of Musgrave and Voronoi noise nodes was used to create the texture painted look. All models were also UV unwrapped in preparation for Unity import.

Unity Compositing
As the lead Unity project designer, I composited all team assets, materials, and code for our game prototype. I created GameObject Prefabs of our 3D models with UV materials and used them to populate the prototype environment. I then refined the look of our Unity prototype by applying fog, bloom, and colour grading post-processing effects to the camera.

Video Demo
The video demo walkthrough using our developed assets in Unity for the module about the Stegosaurus. Watch the prototype demo video!