Tanbii | Art Of CJ

Tanbii is a start-up studio looking to create a mobile game to gamify carbon emissions. As a UI/UX intern, I took on a variety of projects to sharpen my skills of design, teamwork, and research.

Project 1: Researching Leveling Design Systems.

Skills: Research, Presentation, Collaboration

The project's goal was to perform research for the Product and Design Team to understand how casual gamers think about leveling systems in games. I performed qualitative research on how a game's level design system impacts the experience of the game. This involved answering what factors motivate gamers to engage with the leveling system, good and bad examples of leveling systems in games, and the importance of open-ended leveling systems. I received feedback that my work was very useful to the team in influencing their decision process of how they will make Tanbii's leveling system.

Check out my notes and presentation for the project for more!

Project 2: Concept Art

Skills: Concept Design, Responding to Feedback

The project's goal was to create character concept art for the upcoming battle system in a chibi style. We picked an animal to based our characters off of and were also given traits associated with the character to influence our design. I chose the Giraffe, an "Elite creature of the Dark Legion." He is cold blooded, and wears armor.
My first attempt was making the Giraffe look menacing and powerful, but I wanted to stay in line with Tanbii's cute style, so I gave him a goofy looking vampire-esque collar. However, I was given feedback that this version was too scary and mean, and to make him more cute.

I responded by changing his outfit entirely and focusing more on giving him simple armor. I was told I was much more successful on this attempt, and this gives the design team more to work with.

Project 3: Retailer Promotion

The project's goal was to research ways retailer partnerships can be promoted in game through ads, and then make UI display for these ads.

I performed qualitative research once again to provide examples and opinions on how different games present retailer ads in games, which are the most effective, and which would turn players away. I received feedback that my research was very thorough and helpful for the Design and Product Teams to go off of.

Next, We were tasked with making flowcharts and designing UIs for interacting with ads. I created the following designs continuing off of the cute, simple style of Tanbii. My research found that players in general would be more willing to interact and tolerant ads if they get an in-game reward out of it; thus my designs are based on that idea.

Project 4: Story Narration

The project's goal was to create a narrative story draft. We were given key characters and settings that were required to be in the story. Additionally, we were given a lot of freedom to make our own story arcs and new settings. We were tasked with creating new major plot points and creating a dynamic narrative. I outlined 13 new settings and arcs for the game's narrative to go through.

For new settings and characters, I was also tasked with searching up images to help the team understand my ideas visually. I completed this by searching for relevant images on google.

To start, me and my team brainstormed all of our ideas and put them into one document. Gradually, we forged our ideas to add more character development and a more dynamic narrative. Then, we put it all into google slides.

Furthermore, during this project, I took on the responsibilities of writing a script and making missions to go along with the narrative. I am able to include a small section of the script here.

Below is a section of the roadmap presentation. There you can see examples of my work planning out the narrative.

Side Project - Update Analysis

In-between projects Tanbii had an update. The team was looking for feedback so I brought it upon myself to give an in-depth analysis of the update. I played through the update and took notes as I was playing it. Then, I made a presentation in Figma to show what I thought was great in the update, where it could be improved, and my ideas of how to improved them. I gave analysis on new mechanics, the new combat system, and level design. The team gave feedback that my slides were very useful for them in further improving the app.

I am only able to show one slide out out of the presentation. This slide is my analysis on their new loading screen.