Young Designers 2011

		Young Designers 2011
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Shambhavi Gupta | helloshambhavi@gmail.com

Designing for Mobile Gaming Experience

New Media Design | PGDPD
Guide: Gayatri Menon
Sponsor: DIGITAL CHOCOLATE, Bengaluru

Keywords
Interactive game
Mobile phone
Narrative
User experience

My diploma project was to develop two games for mobile phones, each of a different genre. The project aimed to envision interactive games in order to enhance the overall user experience. Mobile games change the relationship between humans and computers and consequently, the gaming experience, the design for the interfaces and interaction structures. Players do not sit in front of their computers anymore but actually move through buildings, streets and open spaces. The main aim of this project was to understand the upcoming trends and to include the best of existing game design models to create a new structure, which was to be applicable to various platforms in mobile phones.

The games, targeted at Indian and European audiences, have a narrative that will cater to casual as well as core gamers. The plot for the first game revolves around a hero who is brave and courageous. He protects his village and King from the clutches of Devin, the demon. It attempts to make players connect with the characters and become more engrossed in the game. The second game is based on golf. The player can choose the avatar: a boy or a girl. The game includes different golf courses - city, desert, Iceland, garden, etc. Users feel empowered by such games and are glued to them. The games also achieve the target of delivering learning content.

I was involved in the process of coming up with the game design, its vision, design documentation and gameflow and was also part of the testing team. Many of the aspects of game development I encountered during the four-month tenure were new for me and each stage of the project was a learning experience.