BIOME BLOCKS
Interactive Design
Description
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.
TEAM
Jessica Feng, Anais Lupu, Stephen Nachtsheim, Viola Yu, Amy Zhu
Project role
Storyboard and Unity compositing lead
Type
Interactive game
Tools
Blender, Unity, Figma
Client
Michael Corrin, University of Toronto
Audience
Grade 8 and 9 students
Date
March 2023
Process Work
Ideation
Our team used Miro as our main collaborative platform for project meeting minutes, ideation, research, storyboarding, and gameplay concept development.
Gameplay Storyboard
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 was to model two different conifer tree species for our project environment. 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.
Unity Compositing
For our prototype, I composited all team assets, materials, and code into Unity. I created GameObject Prefabs of our 3D models 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.
