Summary:

Namaka is a protoype created by a team of 8 students as a 3rd year professional project in association with 'Abertay Play to promote'. Under mentorship from a range of Abertay University lecturers and our client Dr Brian Quinn from The University of West Scotland, the game was created around the premise of raising awareness and informing the general public (primarily children), about the existence and dangers of microplastic waste.

In the game the player controls Kai, a gentle jellyfish creature as he traverses upward through a reef on a journey to discover the source of pollution that is affecting his home. As the player explores the reef they find it littered with microplastic waste which can be interacted with for a short piece of information and a supporting contextual image. Players will also come across minigames that deal with the hazards that plastic waste can bring, such as POP's (Persistent Organic Pollutants), the toxins they carry and larger pieces of plastic waste that can trap marine life.

Guide Kai safely though an environment that degrades as you get closer to the source and discover that it is infact we humans and our habits that cause this problem.

Tasks and responsibilities: 

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• Working closely alongside a co-designer, collaborating gameplay ideas  and working in tandem to efficiently implement changes based on feedback received.

• Defining gameplay mechanics based on real world scenarios and research before prototyping them in sessions with programmers.

• Gathering assets from all disciplines, bringing them into the engine before iteratively building the world up.

• Focusing on the user experience of the game:

  • Consideration of how players would navigate through the gameworld, making sure progress would always be made no matter the path taken. 

  • Planning locations of audio and visual cues so that players are informed of critical information whichever route they took.

  • Deciding on the contents and information given in the UI elements.

• Creating and maintaining extensive documentation.

• Working with the producer to create a narrative that conveyed important information about the topic while also creating something inherently fun to play.

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The project was very successful; being taken to conferences by Dr Quinn. It reached the UK finals of Microsoft's Imagine Cup in the World Citizenship category while also being demonstrated at the indiefest event at Dare to be Digital 2016, several events at Dundee Science Centre and the DIGRA-FDG conference 2016.

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