Timeline
05/22, 04/24
Tools
Photoshop, GitHub, Unity
Background
During my studies in Shenkar, one of our assignments in 'Interactive' lesson was to design an interface for desktop in which the user customizes an object or a character.
I decided to create a game that lets you customize a bento box.
What is a bento box?
A bento box is a Japanese boxed meal consisting of several different food types.
Bento boxes often have multiple compartments, that are used to separate the various foods into neat and aesthetically-pleasing portions.
Our Team & Roles
Wireframe
First version
For the first version, our scope wasn't big, so we didn't add explanations, animations, or sound at that point.
User test
We conducted a user test in class, I tried not to guide my classmates or give any clues.
Users responses:
Reflection on the user test
Overall there was excitement about the game, a few things that repeated themselves made me reach these conclusions:
There should be an option for saving an image.
It's important to have an explanation for each item.
The buttons should be more responsive.
Better readability.
Where each item goes should be more clear.
I'm not sure design students are the best test subjects for this kind of user test since most of the game's audience would probably not think like a designer thinks, but I still learned important things from them.
We did some fixes as part of the course, but later on Nitsan and I decided to continue the project and publish it as a real game.
Games with similar gameplay
Considering the results of the user test, I wanted to check what design choices games in the same genre as mine usually make. I came to the conclusion that dress-up games have the most similar attributes.
These are the common denominators I found (in modern games):
Highly saturated, flashy colors.
A button for saving a picture or for sharing the design.
Sometimes there was an ending animation.
In games with a large variety of options, there was a folder for each item type.
Sometimes there was a randomize button.
Kawaii Dress-Up - by ARF Games
Other bento games
To make sure my game isn't too similar to other games, I also searched what other bento games exist. I found 5 games, which consisted of puzzle games, cooking games, and games that combine design with other gameplay elements.
I decided to keep the gameplay focused almost solely on design (similarly to dress-up games).
The result
I took my research and user test into account and also thought about how to make the game more scalable.
This is the result of our work:
Reflection & Conclusion
I really like this project, it's been fun to work on it with Nitsan.
So far the game is successful :) and we were surprised to see that an article was posted about it on a Japanese website called Automaton (click here to read it in English).
It sounds fun to add more options to the game, like letting users add stickers to the box or drawing on the food with sauce / with nori seaweeds.
I think a second user test will improve the game, It will give us an opportunity to see what users that are more similar to the target audience encounter, and how the new changes we made affect the game.
Next project:
Agora - Short Redesign Project
Solo Internship project | Web-page
Agora is a website that allows anyone to give or receive second-hand items. In this project, I received a challenge: to see how well I could redesign their homepage under two hours.
Contact
Feel free to contact me about anything 🙃