Vreemde Vogels
Client: Zwijssen
Development: Springlab
Software: Unity
Role: Game design, Interaction design, UX design, Level design, Interactive storytelling, Dialogue director
Target audience: Age group 2-4
Released: 2019
Puk is lounging in his garden enjoying the sun. The children join Puk in his garden. First they discover the garden together. It is full of things to look at, touch and listen to. But what's happening there up in a tree?! After a lot of noise and rustling of leaves a tiny young bird falls down on the grass! Helpless and alone. Together with Puk, the children start searching for the bird's family.
But before they do that they must calm the tiny bird down first. Together with Puk, the children try to calm the bird down and reassure it. Once it has calmed down Puk can pick up the bird and the search for the family can begin.
During the game several animal families appear in the garden. Each time the bird thinks it is his family. Together with Puk, the children compare the family members to the bird in order to ensure that the bird does not go with the wrong family. They look at the color, the number of legs/wings and the way the animals move. To show the bird they show the movements of the family members to the bird. Each time they conclude together that it is not the family of the tiny bird, so the search continues.
But the search is not without danger! For example, the neighborhood cat appears in the garden or suddenly a crow flies over scaring the tiny bird. The children have to scare away the cat or the crow in order to continue the search for the family of the tiny bird.
After the children have found the bird’s family they wave goodbye to the bird and Puk invites the children to come lay down on the grass and enjoy the peace and quiet in the lovely garden. As a fitting ending, the reunited family of birds whistles a beautiful song for the children.
Vreemde Vogels was developed in collaboration with Zwijssen. The game fits within the theme 'Ik en mijn familie' from Uk & Puk.
Development areas
This game focuses on the following development areas:
- Math: The children compare and rank the animal families according to different characteristics.
- Language: The children understand and carry out instructions.
- Socio-emotional: The children recognize and interpret the emotions and feelings of others. The children offer help to others.
- Motor skills / Movement: The children imitate postures and movements, practicing aspects of gross motor skills (balance, clambering, running, rolling and jumping) and moving to music (tempo and phrasing). The game mainly focuses on this development area.
My role
Within this project I developed the concept in collaboration with educational specialists from Zwijssen. I translated their ideas into a feasible concept while implementing the learning goals they wanted to incorporate. Then we built the game in Unity. I was responsible for the level design, the narrative design, the game design, testing, iterating and the user experience.
