Alternative Controller - Unity - 2024
Producer | Art Lead
Overview
As a team of 14 graduate students we were tasked with creating game with an alternative controller that interacts and relates to the theme of the experience itself.
Plushie Blaze allows the player to pick up and use a custom crafted plushie dragon as their controller, tilting it around to fly in the game, and then squeezing it to breath fire upon Plushie Land!
I mainly did production and creative direction for this game, while also contributing 3D art/UI/UX whenever possible
Trailer
Use a cuddly plushie to control your dragon
Tilt the plushie to control your flight
Squeeze your plushie to breath fire and burn houses for food!
Burn house to earn points and set a new high score!
We Had Custom Plushies Manufactured!
As Producer
One of my main goals for this team in general is giving everyone an experience that affords a good work-life balance, feels clear and organized, and allows for a positive working atmosphere.
I prepared a workflow of in-class stand ups with stand up notes, organized the initial set up of the team Jira, created a Jira ticket guide for the lead members of the team to reference, and made tracking sheets to practice my skills in both budgeting and data-driven decision making.
I also orchestrated all of plushie manufacturing which included: taking pre-orders on launch day, following up to receive funding, contacting an over-seas manufacturer, budgeting and setting a realistic price point, back and forth for plushie alterations, as well as delivering the plushie to everyone who purchased one.
As a 3D artist on this project I've mainly been creating plushie assets from start to finish, always trying to find way to better optimize my workflow to save time. I created a smart material based set up to act as a "plushie starter kit" as well as an established set of elements and rules for plushie texturing to ensure visual consistency throughout. I also did the UI/UX design for the menus of the game which needed to support the custom controller we were building as well as support accessibility needs of having players experience our game at a convention. I used Adobe XD to prototype as detailed as I possibly could what the menus do and how they should function so that it could be immediately handed off to an engineer.