Micro Parasites
A serious game made in collaboration with National Museums Scotland about parasitic diseases, namely Malaria. The game follows the journey of a hypothetical antibody defeating malaria infected cells throughout different stages of it's lifecycle.
Role: Lead Designer
Target Audience: 11-16 year old secondary school students
Key Insights: Working alongside artists to develop a design language for the game to teach players mechanics without explicitly describing them.
My first client project and longest project to date. The brief was iitially given as part of a 3rd year university module but development continued a year as the museum was happy with our progress and wished to publish the game on their website. The team went through lots of changes as people were brought on board and then left. The game went through several major redesigns, as more 3d artist were brought on, the initial 2d prototype was made in 3d to accomadate this. After they left the two versions were compared and the 2d version was updated and changed to be more action oriented.
My responsibilities included:
Working closely with the programmer and artists to design the enemies behaviour and visual design language.
Researching the subject matter and determining where scientific accuracy can be compromised for users overall enjoyment.
Designing and running playtest sessions to validate design decisions.
Working alongside the UI designer to write information on each stage of malaria's development.
