Enchanted
Engineers
Timeline 16 weeks
Team Claire Peckham, Sasha Somer
Roles Visual Designer, UI Designer, UX Researcher
Tools Figma, Photoshop, Procreate, Blender, Nomad
Intro
How might we develop a game for middle school-aged nonmen and girls who are interested in STEM, while also preparing them for the potential challenges that they might encounter in the field by giving them a supportive learning environment that fosters their confidence and skills?
Why Aren’t Girls in STEM?
Our solution aims to nurture STEM interest by creating a resource-gathering game where players engineer bridges. We also integrate empowering encounters within the game to equip and prepare players to face potential bigotry and challenges in STEM fields.
Solution
Research & Synthesis
Our team set out to research how young women are interacting with games and the world of STEM. We found that 78% of kids play games via mobile device and that 74% of young women are interested in STEM. We also found that women are severely underrepresented in the field of engineering and architecture.
Focus Points
User Archetypes
This user archetype includes younger, less experienced or occasional gamers who prefer clear gameplay instructions. They are attracted to visually bright games and may lack confidence in math and science. Their primary motivations are exploring new areas and meeting a variety of interesting NPCs.
This user archetype is an avid player of games such as Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, and Minecraft. Following Jakob's law, they want a game with similar structure. They are specifically looking for a game that stands out among the others they play. Having encountered sexism in multiplayer games, they prefer a single-player experience where they can avoid hostile players.
This user archetype is already enthusiastic about STEM and engineering, seeking an engaging avenue to expand their knowledge. They desire challenging puzzles that effectively explain engineering concepts. Their primary motivation lies in overcoming challenges and solving puzzles throughout the game.
During our research, we were surprised to learn that young women have a healthy interest in STEM. The reason that they often leave due to unsupportive environments within STEM. Knowing this, we wanted to make sure our game had elements that empowered our players and taught them how to stand up for themselves in the face of adversity.
Exploration
Ideation
Based on our research, we chose to go with an engineering and resource gathering game. We focused in on bridge building principals specifically. We also took inspiration from existing bridge games and games that had a larger non-male demographic. Below are some of our initial sketches that were done about the bridges and what games we were inspired by. For this initial draft, we used AI generated images to better articulate to one another what we wanted visually. In the final iteration, these images were not included.
Puzzling
The main gameplay revolves around gathering resources, crafting structurally sound bridges which leads the players to discover new regions. From these new regions, they’ll unlock new tools and resources so they can continue to build more complex bridges. On the flip side, they’ll also encounter fuzzy antagonists. Our “villains” are meant to be cute so that players can have a more comfortable environment in which they can practice standing up for themselves.
The Mechanics
Fig. A: Primary gameplay mechanics
Fig. B: Secondary gameplay mechanics
Prototyping
As a team, we each tackled a separate task flow. We developed single design elements that we made into patterns. From there, we built out our task flows. During the redesign, I reconfigured our past color palette and type choices.
Atomic Design
Redesign
After our team completed this project, I decided to go back to revamp certain aspects by myself. One of the biggest critiques we received from workshopping this was that there wasn’t great visual harmony. So I focused on re-creating a more visually cohesive design system. Another aspect from workshopping that I focused on was making the UI and interactions fit within the visual scope.
Fig. A: Updated character creation options
Fig. B: Updated antagonist designs
Fig. C: Redesigned character interactions
Concept Testing
Below is a refreshed version of an interaction the player will have with one of the antagonists. It was important that we had moments like this so that the user not only felt empowered, but had the foundations to stand up for themselves in a possibly hostile workspace. I also worked in Blender to do some 3d modeling for the game. Further exploration would include prototyping in Unity and play testing with the intended audience.
Let’s Play
Fig. I: Example of bridge building process
Fig. J: Example of chatting process