Trash Pandas

Trash Pandas is a 2D minigame-based adventure game for children, developed in the Unity Engine. It is centred around the recycling journey, and it is meant to help children more familiar with the reasons and methods behind recycling. In this project, my role was as a hybrid Game Designer/Developer. I designed and balanced the minigames, came up with the overall game flow, and coded the entire game.

Achievements

  • Multiple Mini-Games

    I worked in tandem with my team’s Character Artist to develop three fun, simple, and engaging minigames, geared towards a younger audience. I constantly tested the difficulty level to make sure they were accessible to our audience, and I ensured the game’s pro-recycling message was evident in the mechanics themselves.

  • Polished End Result

    I ensured that a comfortable User Experience was at the forefront of design priorities at all stages, from menus to game flow. With the help of my team’s brilliant 2D artists, I developed simple and smooth interaction points between the user and the application.

My main challenge in this project was making sure that the tone, message, and overall game experience was appropriate for the younger audience we were targeting, considering the team was not allowed to run user tests with them. There were multiple times where elements as significant as entire minigames had to be redesigned because we deemed the mechanics too complex for our target audience. I overcame this challenge through careful research of existing games with the same target audience, compilation of secondary sources, and collaboration with team members knowledgeable about UX. This helped me improve my knowledge of accessibility and accessible design, and helped me become more comfortable working with multidisciplinary teams of experts.

Interested in learning more?

The game is playable from this website
and the project documentation can be found here.

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