In a Bath with L.E.O.N
ROLE
Independent Designer, Developer, and Researcher
DESCRIPTION
In this game set on a spaceship, the player is tasked to complete a collection of minerals, plants, and creatures.
The player will gain points by getting their heart rate into a fat-burning zone and use these points to progress in the game.
In this project, a fitness tracker was developed using an Arduino Microcontroller that syncs with a mobile game made in Unreal Engine 4.27.
YEAR
2022/2023
GENRE
Casual, Collection, Exercise.
PLATFORM
Mobile - Android
Research Topic
How the gameplay of a mobile game can motivate an individual to exercise using variables provided by a fitness tracker.
Overview
Gameplay Video
Design iteration comparisons
Game Design iterations
Original Design
Original Design slide deck
Iteration 1
The first playtest highlighted a poor user experience.
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The controls did not suit the style of the game.
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Landscape mode made the player use two hands which felt unnecessary.
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The player only had to go to 5 different locations which could be achieved by clicking a button instead of controlling with an analogue.
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This iteration looks to fix these issues.
Iteration 1 slide deck
Iteration 2
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The menus are displayed at the bottom of the screen instead of cycling through multiple menus.
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All the important information is displayed at the top of the screen.
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During a playtest, it was observed that the player wasn’t sure what to do.
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For this reason, tasks that can be completed were highlighted with a notification.
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This iteration saw the addition of button UI to the bottom buttons.
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The images made it clearer what each button did.
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The text was also added for best practice.
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The playtest also highlighted there wasn’t much reason for collecting items.
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For this reason, a sell inventory button was added so the player could gain additional EXP for selling their items.
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Iteration 2 slide deck
Iteration 3
Iteration 3 slide deck
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The playtest highlighted the buttons were quite small.
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This was adjusted and the buttons and trays were made bigger.
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New buttons were made with larger text.
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Buttons also highlight when selected to show which menu is selected, while other buttons are dulled out.
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An inventory, goals and leaderboards, and upgrades screen were added.
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The player can now upgrade LEON's vacuum head, allowing them to gather larger rocks.
Iteration 4 - Tutorial
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Another playtest highlighted that the player wasn’t sure what to do at the beginning of the game.
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When the level starts, the player character auto-walks toward the NPC where a button appears.
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The player does not have to click this, but they are made aware they can.
Tutorial slide deck
Iteration 4 - Menu UI updates
Menu UI slide deck
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Iteration 4 saw major improvements to the UI.
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Dark backgrounds were used to make the light-coloured buttons stand out.
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All UI assets were drawn on an iPad with an Apple Pencil.
Iteration 4 - Space gameplay & Mechanics
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The player earns fat burn points by being in a fat burning zone.
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These are used to send LEON into space.
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LEON is controlled with an analogue and can suck rocks towards them with a vacuum.
Dying in space Video
Going into space slide deck
Successfully filling backpack video
Iteration 4 - Rock breaking mechanic
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The rock breaking level has the number of rocks in the top right corner.
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The player clicks a button on the rock to break part of the rock.
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A RNG determines if the rock breaks.
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If the player clicks all the buttons, they gain either a mineral, egg, or seed.
Rock breaking mechanic video
Iteration 4 - Growing plants & Creatures
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The player can grow plants and creatures.
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This takes 10 minutes, but it can be skipped using fat burn points.
Incubating eggs slide deck
Growing plants video
Iteration 5
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The final iteration added more upgrades.
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The player can now upgrade their backpack store or earn more FBP per heart beat while in a fat burning zone.
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The buttons for goals and leaderboards were updated.
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A final gameplay design is added. This is what will be done with the main gameplay in future development.
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This creates more use for the items collected.
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Iteration 5 slide deck
Blueprints
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Some of the blueprints are shown and described below.
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Please note that this project has a lot of blueprints so only some have been shown.
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These are prototype blueprints and can be improved.
Blueprint slide deck
