Field Work: Experience the Life of a Paleontologist
Background
For this game, my team created an application for visitors of Chicago’s Field Museum. Made during the Covid-19 pandemic, our team was caught day dreaming about the days when we could visit one of Chicago’s treasures. We decided to make a game inspired by SUE the T-Rex that lives there! The game allows the player to dig up and discover dinosaur bones, while learning about the science paleontologists apply every day. Mikaela Muersch was our programmer, Nicole Hampshire defined our learning goals, worked on asset development, and assisted with look and feel. I was responsible for the other half of asset development, and look and feel. I also created the user interface for the game.
Team: Ben Colvin, Nicole Hampshire, Mikaela Muersch
My Role: UI/UX (100%), Look and feel (50%), & Asset Development (50%)
Media: Unity Game Engine, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Audition
Client: Sam Bond
Audience: Visitors of the Chicago Field Museum
Period: September 2020 - December 2020
Teamwork
Looking back, I am especially proud of this project. We worked on it amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, and with that came an onslaught of related challenges. It is easy to say that the key to successful teamwork is just having fun, but sometimes teamwork is tough. We reached points of real frustration and discouragement, and at times we had to accept the current reality and sacrifice parts of the game we were passionate about making.
My pride for this projects comes from the points along the way where everyone on the team had to step up and go the extra mile - and each of us did. We navigated the hurdles and made the right course corrections to get our science story to the finish line.
The final product
The end result is an endearing little game that was shaped by the challenges we met along the way. We submitted the final version to the International Serious Play Awards program. These stills are from parts of the game that I worked on.
Playthrough video