As a game designer on this project, and the lead of the team, I was responsible with maintaining the project and designing key parts of the game. I also worked closely with, Chevy, and the developer, Genuine, to understand what needed to be done and how it can be done. I designed the core loop of the game, wrote highly detailed design documents, and created copy documents for our writers to work well with the rest of the design and development teams.

A big challenge I faced as a lead was creating the direction for an experience which balanced Chevy’s demands to understand their consumers, but also provide a fun experience even if a player only interacted for two minutes. So, I came up with a light experience which got players invested through character creation, narrative choices, and simple UX, while also prioritizing data collection survey’s at the front of the experience for the client’s sake.

Design Document

I worked closely with Genuine and other designers to help create a technical spec which the developers could take and easily create a full game out of. We had a tight deadline so it was paramount that the design document was flawless and extremely detailed for the client. You can see it here.

Game Flow

I worked closely with Chevy to understand what kind of game loop they needed for their experience and how data collection would play a role in the experience. Since it was an in-person activity we could have users walk away whenever, so we needed to design a game loop which would retain them but still allow them to make their experience personal. So, I centered the experience on a roadtrip which would record their experiences and give them fun narrative moments along with small rewards. This loop was designed by me and the rest of the team with several successful prototypes made in Twine.

Spreadsheet for the Copy

I was responsible for maintaining the documentation for the project which also included formatting and coming up with a way to track all the copy. I came up with an excel spreadsheet with matching numbers to the main design doc, along with a change log system which marked changes to the document and notified the client. Copy is always under high scrutiny with client and needs to be reviewed multiple times before approval so making sure this was understandable to a non-developer was very important.