Aweseven
YEAR 2015
I don’t mind revisiting this topic, for it never fails to make me smile. This project is dear to me and a true highlight of my time at CMU's ETC (Entertainment Technology Center). The experience was deeply satisfying, as everything felt so natural. The ETC's semester-long projects pair you with new colleagues, and the experience with the Aweseven team was truly one in a million. Our task was to make educational games for the SMALLab at Elizabeth Forward High School using our gaming skill set for kids in a playful, educational environment.
ROLE :
Artist, Sound Designer & HCI Researcher
TEAM :
Worked with Four Game Developers and Two Producers
KEY TECHNOLOGIES
Math & English Game
Multi Player
Customizable Games
2D & 3D Games
TOOLS & SOFTWARES USED:
Adobe Creative Suite
Z Brush
Maya
Unity
Logic Pro
“Building educational games that made people smile.”
Methodology & Approach
Our strategy was simple: Prototype > Playtest > Iterate > Repeat. Our goal was not to do things right, but to do the right things. Fail fast, learn fast. We prototyped very fast, shared the build for a playtest, gathered input, and iterated. This process allowed the level of complexity, in terms of features and graphical fidelity, to level up as we proceeded.
TEAM - A Promotional image of the Team Members🠉
SMALLab - An outline of the system at work 🠉
Research & Prototype
Our games focused on math and vocabulary for 3rd- to 8th-grade students. Teachers were our second user base, so we created easy-to-use customization tools to optimize game content for targeted learning. Understanding their needs was crucial. One of the core game mechanics we developed was a "hidden bug" that required team members to collaborate and share insights to reveal an object's traits, which demonstrated the importance of teamwork and gave each player a purpose. This proved that the experience was more important than the complexity of the contraption itself.
PLAYTESTING - Report Summary of a Playtest with Students for our Game 🠉
GAME ART - Game art using various graphics pipelines for 2D and 3D formats 🠉
Final Outcome
This project left a positive, long-lasting impression on me. The feeling is difficult to characterize—like a perfect meal, a combination of solid team chemistry, collaborative brainstorming, a good challenge, and the joy of success. Having done the hard work while having fun, I could stand back and watch others have a blast. In that moment, the project became more than a snippet on my resume; it stayed as a smile for them and for me.
GAME POSTER - Poster Art for the Game 🠉
“We didn't just ship a project; we delivered a smile.”
— Team Aweseven
PRESENTATION - Game Presentation Videos during Halves & Finals at CMU ETC 🠉
