Beyond the Dome
My Roles:
- User Experience
- User Interface Design
- Prototyping and Paper Prototypes
Tools:
- Figma
- Paper
Project Type:
University Project
Project Year:
2023
Award Winner:
Golden Pineapple
Overview
Beyond the Dome is a mobile 3rd-person adventure and exploration game created during a game design course. Our goal was to design a game from scratch that connects to one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. We chose to focus on the environment and humanity’s responsibility to protect it.
In the game, players take on the role of Tofu, a small robot sent to explore a post-apocalyptic Earth. Humanity now lives inside a dome and Tofu’s mission is to uncover why the world became uninhabitable and how to fix it.
Process
We started with a blank slate and worked as a team on everything: concept, story, mechanics, and sound. After lots of brainstorming, we developed the idea of the small robot exploring an uninhabitable world.
The gameplay focuses on exploration and discovery. Players unlock new parts of the map and solve environmental challenges to slowly restore the planet. We decided not to use a traditional tutorial. Instead, we relied on intuitive design, gestures and visual/audio feedback to guide the player naturally.
Final Thoughts
This was one of the most exciting and meaningful projects I’ve worked on. It was not only fun to build a game from scratch, but also powerful to create something that encourages people to think about the environment and the future.
Designing a game that could make players more aware of the world around them and their role in protecting it was a truly rewarding experience.