Doggo Dash is a 3 month long production of a complete video game (beta version). We created Doggo Dash to make a lighthearted game that would be entertaining for players of all ages. It’s engaging enough for anyone to play but is also mechanically intensive enough to keep more experienced players interested. Our treat upgrade system adds another element of strategy and makes each new level unique.
I worked on a team of 3 to create this isometric styled 3rd person shooter. Each team member was the lead for a particular role throughout our collaboration heavy production.
Involved concept development, wireframing, user interface design, programming (C#), usuability research, particle system effects, logo design, and graphic design.
We decided our target audience would be animal lovers, young children, and casual gamers. We wanted the game to look colorful and cute and the mechanics to play out smoothly. The intention of the UI is simplistic, understandable for non-gamers and children, and present but not distracting.
Many low-fidelity wireframes were created for various screens within the game. Some pieces did not see implementation due to lack of strutural standing without the game and disrupting the flow.
Content is mapped for presentation in game.
Mapping used to communicate amongst the team to decide how the game will flow. How the player will be able to navigate between game screens without being taken out of the game. This helped with visualizing the programming of the scene management within Unity.
First playable of Doggo Dash with rough UI implemented. Doggo Dash still contained bugs at this stage but the UI suspicion bar, treats counter, and coin counter functionality worked.
This prototype was created near the beginning as a way to write and test the code behind the visuals. Visuals were then updated in this Alpha version and Beta version.
Bug free full feature of Doggo Dash with complete UI design and functionality implemented.
Screenshots include:
*Photo gallery for viewing. Click images to enlarge.
Part of the marketing section of our video game, this sell sheet was designed to give a brief insight into Doggo Dash without overloading the page with information about game mechanics, or controls.
This sell sheet was meant to entice the viewer as well as craft a narrative behind the game, Doggo Dash.
Throughout this 3 month long production journey, I was able to experience the design process, beginning to end, for a video game. I created wireframes, brought those wireframes to life through visual design, broke those designs down through multiple user testings, and built the designs back up in a more intutitve manner.
I now understand the importance of user testing even at the very beginning of the design process. A lot of my user testing was done post Alpha due to the hinderance of bugs which led to unplayability. Despite this, having our target audience playtest through our games was incrediably helpful and should have been part of the process from the very start.
Watching students, faculty, and adults whom play video games very casually, helped me understand where players tended to look during gameplay and where players wanted to click. It helped me understand which parts of the UI were less intutitive and which parts blended seemlessly into the game.
