Climate Conversations
Technical Designer
Jan 2021 - April 2021 (4 months) | Solo | Unreal Engine 4
Explore a community, finding collectibles and talking to citizens to learn how climate change affects our real world.
- Researched the causes, effects, and solutions to climate change, and wrote a short document (below) with my findings.
- Created a paper prototype of my dialogue to quickly test its effect on different users
- Wrote branching dialogue for 6 characters where the player learns about and then re-teaches their knowledge on climate change
- Implemented collectibles and resource viewer buttons that take the player to the online resources I used to research the game's topic
- Conducted usability tests and administered surveys weekly with 2-3 unique users. I used the data and feedback to plan and implement improvements weekly.
Research Summary Sample
Contains one week's data and feedback from usability tests and surveys I conducted with 3 unique users, as well as a summary of possible next steps for improving the experience through design and some technical fixes.
Preliminary Research
Prior to any prototyping or design work, I researched the causes, effects, and solutions to climate change. I wrote this document describing the most significant causes and effects for an easy reference while creating the game's content.
Post Mortem
My achievements, failures, and future improvements. In short:
- Measurably delivered on player behavior and knowledge goals
- Thorough testing and iteration made for great improvements over time
- Struggled to bridge the gap between player experience and real-world action. In a future project, I would like to do more research on effective target behaviors and prototype mechanics to cause them.
- There's too much dialogue to read, in particular for the lack of player agency over conversations
- Longer-term retention would improve the impact of player actions and engagement