Pollen’s First Day

Pollen’s First Day is a collaborative project led by myself and Alvin Chan. The project was made over the course of a single semester and was later pitched to NASA at the end of the school year. Alvin worked primarily on designing the ISS level as well as charting the player path. While I worked entirely on the UI/UX and various scripting needs on the project. That said, we did receive some help from fellow artists: Devon Ferguson, James Delk, Chunyi Lai, and Jinheng Li, who helped create concept art, UI face mockups, and the awesome logo seen within the game. Additionally, we received help from Rulon Feeney who composed the soundtrack to the game exactly to our specifications. It is important to note that this game is just a basic prototype and has the potential to continue development in upcoming semesters, but I am uncertain if myself, or Alvin will continue along with the project.

This project was one of two NASA focused games made that semester and aims introducing science and the NASA brand to younger audiences. On the International Space Station (ISS) are three Astrobee robots, Honey, Queen, and Bumble, that help astronauts complete basic onboard tasks. This game tells the story of Pollen a new Astrobee onboard the ISS and their journey exploring the vast hallways of the station. As Pollen undergoes different experiences you may notice that the interface will showcase different emotions. For example, going into a dark room will cause Pollen to relay a scared or frightened look which returns to a happy or relieved look when leaving the room. The current main gameplay loop consists of  moving Pollen around the ship, visiting fun facts, and completing the assigned tasks.

During the games early production I also created two top down maps for the project. The first, a basic outline of the ship’s layout, while the second showcases the locations of a variety of Fun Facts present throughout the game.