APR - JUN 2022

bloom

skills

Game design • Character design • 3D Modeling

tools

Unity • Blender

A single-player game that allows players to practice forming and maintaining eye contact. Its title, Bloom, represents the possible new relationships and opportunities that may be discovered if we overcome the fear. The major gameplay is to approach an eye and maintain eye contact with it for a random amount of time, then it will either turn into a poppy or thorny vines by random. The former increments the player’s score and heals, while the latter inflicts damage on collision (needs to be dodged).

play game

moodboard

I curated a moodboard that represents the aesthetics of the world I have in mind. I envisioned it to be mostly monochrome and simplistic, with more color (red) brought into it as more poppies are formed. From there, I roughly sketched of how I imagine the world would look like.

I did not have previous experience with Unity or Blender, so I tried to keep the concept simple and design minimalistic to deliver a more complete product.

sketches

Early sketches of the character and world. To have the aerial view of the landscape resemble an eye, I planned to place a circular staircase in the middle that eventually leads to the highest point of the world.

character design

The character (avatar of the player) is named Poppy. Its mission is to observe and find beauty in the world (an abstract, deserted imaginary landscape) – and ultimately itself – through its eye. The choice of flower references a poem I really like – Poppies in July by Sylvia Plath. In the poem, poppies live in the poet's internal landscape, with imaginations associated with hurt, numbness, and escapism. These symbolisms serve as inspirations for my game and set a somewhat eerie tone for it.

[data-wf-bgvideo-fallback-img] { display: none; } @media (prefers-reduced-motion: reduce) { [data-wf-bgvideo-fallback-img] { position: absolute; z-index: -100; display: inline-block; height: 100%; width: 100%; object-fit: cover; } }