Project Brief

CSSoch has a mission to provide India centric supplementary program to schools to develop computational thinking and programming skills. I came on board to create visual assets– puzzles, game elements, character design and the mascot– for the company website. The design had to feature quintessential Indian animals and landscapes that would be familiar to the user.

Design Process

I joined this project early on (in May 2020) to create the game assets: background, character and obstacle design. Since these were the first visual pieces, I had to identify the tone for the project. Knowing that the primary users would be young school children, I chose a stylised, simple design consisting of basic shapes and bright, warm tones.

The first asset was the background for a navigational game. The locations were a village setting with a few houses and a forest populated with animals.

Then, I created the characters (a sheep and fox), some obstacles, prizes and the finishing line. This was an iterative process wherein I worked closely with the client to ensure the code, interface and game assets worked harmoniously.

Keeping with the theme, I had to create a noticeably Indian mascot. This mascot would be present throughout the game, popping up to tell the student user crucial information. I played around with a few animals, a squirrel, ant, owl, earthworm, before finally landing on the ant design, cheeti.

I also created some puzzle illustrations that were targetting a younger age group (1st graders). They had to be simple designs and a larger quantity.

Reflection

This project tested my illustrations, and I also touched up my digital design work. However, the most challenging part of the experience was creating a visual identity for the games. It took many iterations to form a style that was translatable, easy to reproduce and engaging. I am most proud of the colours used in the project and the animals I created. This process was also an exercise in interacting with clients, understanding their requirement and meeting it in a timely fashion.