In cooperation with climate scientists at the University of Waterloo, I advised game design and created art assets in Illuminate, an interactive public display for a family audience which highlighted hope in a future with climate change. Process as well as Impact and lessons learned are described.

Urban landscape in Illuminate. Static elements were digitally painted and the dynamic elements used a flat art style.

My consultation work on Illuminate involved coordinating complex interdisciplinary research in unfamiliar areas of study, using game development processes in an academic space, and translating scientific concepts in meaningful ways to a generalist audience. As lead artist, I worked concurrently with the developer, performed user-testing, and designed an art style (ie. line weight, colour) friendly to non-artists tasked with scaling the Illuminate project in the future.

Project overview

The MUSEUM in Kitchener, Ontario held the ALARM exhibition to press the urgency of action for climate change. In cooperation with the The Interdisciplinary Centre on Climate Change (IC3), the Games Institute contracted myself and others to develop an interactive public display to demonstrate current and future steps which can be done to meet the Paris Agreement. Titled Illuminate, the display used a visual novel game interface to feature three Canadian landscapes (Coastal, Urban, and Rural) which would change depending on adaptations (ie. solar panels, building regulations) chosen by museum guests in a narrative. Illuminate was to be on display in the MUSEUM in early 2020.

Space alotted for the installation in the MUSEUM.

Approach

A core production team comprised of a writer, developer, and artist (myself) worked within the Games Institute to design an installation encouraging hope in The MUSEUM's ALARM exhibit, with administrative staff support managing communications with IC3 and The MUSEUM. The project kicked off in November 2019 with January 2020 in consultation with climate scientists in IC3. Discussions lead to acknowledgment of the short runway for the project from all parties and decided on a modular setup for Illuminate. Three playable modules were to be completed by January 2020, with opportunities for more modules to be added in early February 2020 if needed. Two weeks of testing time was scheduled into the plan.

Workflow Management

Recurring meetings took place between the production team (writer, developer, artist), and research team (writer, administrative staff, IC3) concurrently between November and December 2019. Communications were exchanged internally on Slack and externally via email and a shared OneDrive owned by the writer. The management system was consistently used and effectively led to a scalable prototype developed by the time the writing was finalized.

Considering Legacy

The developer and I (artist) were not scheduled to continue our contracts, thus if new modules were to be added post-January, both the game environment and the art assets must be scalable. In the case no new programming and art talent was available, it was ensured all future assets could be added within the game engine's environment (Unity) without scripting, and a low-barrier art style was used. Barriers to artwork were seen as poor art fundamentals such as (1) line control; (2) colour theory; and (3) drawing from memory. Thus, art style chosen used feathered brushes which did not require precise line weight control, a colour palette was pre-chosen for future art, and realistic proportions were used for future artwork to be produced through rotoscoping.

Design

Iluminate's design needed to attract and engage museum guests in a large public space to a handheld tablet. The guest’s attention was a rare commodity among other attractive displays and their time may be limited. Thus, (1) the game loop must be quick for guests to quickly take away a learnable experience, and (2) the installation as a whole must be attractive.

Game loops were kept short (30 secs to 2 min play), asking players only three questions each landscape scenario, with 3-4 options per question to ensure replayability. A second monitor with a trailer video was also set up to display potential gameplay to passersby to garner interest in interacting. 

 Gameplay

*Video of full project to be shared post-launch.

Testing

Conversations with The MUSEUM and IC3 took place to understand the definition of success for the installation. As a development team, we wished to deliver a product by January with understandable flows accurate to the latest climate science and fit The MUSEUM's branding. 

Expert Review

A finished prototype of one landscape (coastal) was made as a demo to IC3, and narrative and artwork of remaining landscapes were presented as text and image files. Through email discussions and a working shared spreadsheet file, IC3 provided feedback in writing with relevant sources. Narrative and artwork was updated with their insight.

Talk-Alouds

External to the core team, testing was performed on student volunteers in the Games Institute over lunch on their personal mobile devices. Students were asked to play through scenarios and voice aloud their thoughts and concerns during the playthroughs. Inconsistencies between narrative and art were brought up, as well as minor confusions in UI (e.g. buttons were not obviously leading to intended screens). Changes were applied quickly from testing and tested again internally before launching.

Impact

Illuminate was ready for isntallation for the MUSEUM in January 2020 in the MUSEUM, successfully:

• Providing education for MUSEUM guests on possible adaptations to climate change
• Providing a scalable model for an interactive public display if IC3 and the Games Institute wishes to expand on the project to incorporate other landscapes such as artics, suburbs, or mountains
• Creating an artifact for research for the Games Institute for future research opportunities and display at open house events

Reflection

The project was successful in process and delivery. Strengths were in team work and transparency across parties during the development process despite competing priorities during the short runway. (More reflection post-launch is warranted.)

What I would have done differently

I prioritized art assets for the Illuminate interface, but in retrospect the art should have considered the installation concept as a whole from print advertisements to video trailers. The colour schemes and iconography chosen for the gameplay were lighter in colour and storybook-like to appeal to both children (storybook readers) and adults (storybook buyers). Although effective for the visual-novel game interface, the style may not be as attractive to the passerby in a busy public space, especially when compared to previous displays by the Games Institute like Quantum Cats, which has graphics easily translatable to its promotional materials.

In the future it would also be better working with vectors for better scaling across screen sizes and I would be interested in exploring the .psb file setting instead of saving each layer (through batch processing script) to be imported into Unity to enable animations.

Coastal landscape.

Rural landscape.