ENERGYCARE

ENERGYCARE is a augmented reality game where children must help Hippa, the fairy of the forest, and Otso, the warmhearted fool of a bear, to safe their beloved forest. Game aims to inform children in kindergarten aged 4 to 6 about sustainable lifestyle. In the game players search AR-markers around kindergarten to find different missions. Each mission is themed with subjects around sustainable lifestyle.

Work type: Customer project at Metropolia Game Studio
Development Status: Finished
Platform: Android
Engine: Unity (C#)
Team: Programmer, Artist, Scriptwriter, Game Designer

 

My contribution

Game concept – Gameplay Mechanics, Setting, Background study

Game design – Gameplay Loop, Mini-Game Design

Narrative Design – Storyboards

Design Comments

Core Loop:

1. First Hippa introduces and tells about the subject to the children.
2. The children discuss, explore or try out the given subject on their own outside the game
3. Teach what they have learned to the game’s character “Otso” in  form of a mini-game.

Based on the needs and curriculum of our partnership kindergarten I came up with the initial concept about the game. Because of the children’s age I wanted the children to be able to move and not just stare the screen of a tablet. That’s why I decided that the game was going to be Augmented Reality game. The subject was also very broad with multiple different areas to cover so making a mini-game out of each of the areas seemed like the most obvious choice.

The theme of the game came from the need to preserve Finnish culture and nature. I studied some Finnish folklore and ended up on having Hippa in the game. The king of the forest. Along with Hippa I wanted to have a second character in the game for sake of learning. Hippa is the wise and friendly face to teach and guide the children. Hippa would tell the children about the subject and children would discuss about the subject and try it for themselves but for the last part I added Otso the Bear to the game. Bear has meaning in Finnish folklore and Otso is one of the old nicknames of bear in Finnish.  Otso is meant to be a character that was clueless of how to live by Hippa’s teachings. Hence the mini-game was always a game where children would teach Otso about the subject.

The challenge was how to tackle such a wide and serious subject in a way that kept it also fun for the children. Mini-games was a way to have all the wanted subjects in the game without need for a big storyline. Fun was created by having multiple different mini-games in the game with each one of them different from the other. Learning was never forced on the children. Having them teach the subject to Otso with a mini game was a way to enforce the learning experience without being too pushy about it.