Matura, Please!
Matura, Please! is the product of a 2-day Hackathon
at TU Graz powered by edventure Studios.
The goal is to combine Open Educational Resources (OER) and Game Jams to develop open educational games with motivated game developers, artists and teachers.
The declared aim is to help young people learn difficult concepts in STEM subjects.
The open-source nature of the games allows them to be further developed and adapted at any time.
Designed and developed by a group of 4 students, this Unity game is designed to help students prepare for their Math Matura in a fun and engaging way.
Matura, Please! - Browser Game
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Brainstorming PhaseThe brainstorming phase was all about coming up with a game concept that would be fun and engaging for students. The result: a game concept that combines elements of the games "Papers, please!" and "You are not my neighbor". We wrote down our requirements and ideas and divided them into 3 different categoris: must, should and could. This way we would have our outline set for the next two days.
The game is set in an office-like setting where the player has to check functions and their proposed attributes. Depending on the correctness of the description, the player has to decide whether to accept or reject it.
Settled on the game concept, the first half-day was all about designing a first prototype. I was responsible for the UI/UX Design.
Identifying the key UI elements of similar games, I started to draft first designs of UI components. This being a 2-day hackathon, I had to keep the design simple and minimalistic.
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UI Design - Game ScreenFollowing the brainstorming phase, I started to draw the UI elements in Canva. The goal was to create a simple and minimalistic design that would be easy to implement in Unity. Therefore, strong communication with the developers was key.
I started with the game screen, as it would be the main screen of the game. I tried to incorporate a similar design language to the game Mini Motorways, with its smooth color scheme and comic style look.
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UI elements and Home ScreenI created a set of UI elements that would be used in the game, including interactive buttons of 2 to 3 states, a background, and other small objects.
Another important part was to include a home screen with different difficulty levels that you can choose from. I designed a simple home screen with an outside view of the office that you see before you start your work shift. I tried to incorporate the settings and difficulty level selection seemingly into the whole design.
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In the end all that was left was a report card and a background for the game screen window. I designed a simple report card that gives the user some performance metrics as well as a feedback in the form of a 3-star international rating system.
The background for the game screen window was designed to be a simple waiting-room-like setting with a few chairs, a ceiling fan and a plant. In the game version this go blurred out, so the player can focus more on whats really relevant.