The
Tornado Hero
Dedicated to Heros Rescuing Lifes
Overview
Timeline
Summary
My team was focusing on making a game that is dedicated to disaster rescue teams. We use the huge and dangerous image of the tornado to highlight the spirit of the "hero" in the game. In order to take advantage of VR games, we have created two interactive experiences for players: "swing" and "throwing"
2 Weeks
My Role
Game Designer, UX&UI Designer, Technical Artist
Software & Devices
Oculus Quest2, Unity, Maya, Blender, Adobe Illustrator
Game Video
Design Process
Game design
At first, my team aimed to make a game dedicated to disaster rescue teams and firefighters, as they are the true heroes around us. We wanted the player to feel their strength and courage when facing great danger.
Then it came to the fundamental interactions of the game. With the requirement of building a VR game, we came up with two key interactions - "swinging" and "throwing." Combining with our theme, "throwing a hook" represents saving people from the disaster. And "swinging a cudgel" stands for blocking the flying obstacles away. We both thought that [Tornado] would be an excellent choice for the game theme. Because the figure of the giant tornado would be specific enough to represent "Great Danger."
After defining the key interactions and game mechanism, we divided the player's visual area into two parts. Players will spot those people who need to be rescued in the center, and the flying obstacles will come from the sides. In this way, the gaming experience became more explicit and easy to understand with.
UI/UX Design
For user interface in VR games, designers should carefully arrange it because any inappropriate UI elements could destroy the sense of immersion. Therefore, during the gaming period, I tried to restrain visual interference from UI elements as much as possible. And at the same time made the UI elements to provide information effectively.
Game Art
Being a technical artist for this project, I was responsible for the game environment (lightings&skybox), textures, shaders, etc. The most important part of visuals in this game is the tornado. While being In line with the cartoon style of this game, the figure of the tornado should be realistic and destructive. I wrote a shader in Unity in order to achieve this.
ShaderGraph in Unity
Inner shader and Outer shader
To increase the visual tension of the game, we tried to change the main camera's perspective degree. However, in this way, the game scene would look so weird. The final solution I came up with is to arrange the buildings diagonally instead of putting them in a line. In this case, The figure of the tornado becomes more numerous in a clever way.
The actual placement of objects
Character Design
focusing on making a game that is dedicated to disaster rescue teams, I surely need to abstract a figure from those rescuers or firefighters. At first I was planning to design a figure which is a powerful hero, and full of armor. But then I realized that to show the hero's spirit of selflessness and dedication, the figure of the hero needs to contrast with the tornado. Which means while being strong enough to save people from the disaster, the hero needs to be an ordinary person who would take a great risk to face the tornado.
Therefore, The final figure of the character is a ordinary person who has the equipment and the spirit to rescue people. And its identity is portrayed deliberately vague. He could be a professional rescuer. Or he could also just be a helpful inventor. All is depend on how the player understand the game.
The hero's heavy mechanical foot explains why he won't get affected by the tornado, as well as why he can't move in the game. And he just wear a shorts, just for some sense of humor for the game.
