Brief
For this school project, we had to design a mole game inspired by a license of our choice, playable on mobile and in augmented reality.
My role
We were a team of two UX/UI designers working on this project and divided our work to be efficient. What I did in this project:
- Created game interfaces.
- Created the branding and identity of the game.
- Designed and programmed:
- Gameplay mechanics.
- Game transitions.
- Mole animations.
- Scoreboard system.
Concept
Whackbouf is a mole game inspired by the Wakfu series from Ankama, specifically the popular game Boufbowl (which is similar to American football).
As a mole game, the gameplay is pretty simple:
- Mole randomly appears on the field.
- The player has to hit the right ones to score the highest score possible.
- The game ends when the timer ceases.
There is 4 differents moles, 2 positives and 2 negatives:
Branding
As our game is based on a Whack-a-mole, I found it fits pretty well with Wakfu which could have made Whackfu. But I wanted our name to be more representative of the content of the game; in the end, I combined the Whack from Whack-a-mole with Bouf from Boufbowl. Whackbouf represents the fusion between Whack-a-mole and Boufbowl.
The logo is a reproduction of the original logo, utilizing the original font.
Interfaces
The gameplay loop helps us to visualise which interface would be essential in our game. We spent a lot of time searching for the perfect illustrations as none of us were good at illustration. We built our interfaces using Figma before I imported them into Unity.
Mole’s appearance
In a classic whack-a-mole, the mole appear through a hole on the board. Based on the universe of Wakfu, i thought it would be interesting to make them appear with an Eliatrop’s portal, since in the series Yugo used them a lot to play and make thing appear and disappear.
To make the moles appear, I used an asset of Yugo’s portal to bring them on the field. On Unity, I recreate the portal animation along with a modified sample of the portal sound. When showing the portal sound is play normally and on hiding it is played backward, adding a significant value to the animation.
Mole behaviour
The appearance of a mole is determined by the type of the mole and their lifetime. In the game, there is one Prefab Asset to which are linked the 4 types of moles; each type has a different chance to appear. Their appearance on the field is predetermined by the placement of the 9 holes, but their lifetime is set as random to improve the balance of the game.
Each instance of a mole is destroyed at the end of its lifetime and a new one is created for the next, ensuring no overlap of multiple moles.
AR
The Augmented Reality option was made using the add-on Vuforia Engine. Without being too difficult it allows me to just put the image of my choice and set it as an AR Marker. In AR mode the game will begin only when the marker is detected. Then the game will be overlapped on top of the marker and the game will start.
If the marker is no longer detected the game will be put in pause and once it is detected again the game can resume.
Login interface
When starting the game, the player arrives on the login interface which serves as a screen title. The name entered will be displayed on the scoreboard at the end if you manage to score enough points. The player then decides whether they want to play in AR or not. The scene without AR is on a fixed view in a Boufball stadium, while being AR set the field wherever the marker is.
Competitive
Inspired by an arcade game, Whackbouf brings a challenge between players by displaying a scoreboard at the end of the game. The player defines a name upon entering the game; it will be stored and linked to the score’s session. When the timer ends, the scoreboard screen displays the first 10 players with the highest score.
Learning
Making a full mini-game by yourself is hard but allows you to learn so many different things depending on which functionality you want to add in your game.
In my case, it was fun to try animation in Unity, managing a scoreboard and making a game with multiple interfaces. As a designer i can understand better what it is possible to do and how much time it can take.
Credits
The illustrations displayed as background in the different screens were found from screenshots and concept art from the artists who worked with Ankama on the Wakfu franchise.
Image by Grégoire Villermaux / Behance / Licensed under Ankama Studio
Image by Ankama Studio / Wakfu: The Animated Serie / Licensed under Ankama Studio
Image by Ankama Studio / Wakfu: The MMORPG / Licensed under Ankama Studio
Image by Cyril Corallo / ArtStation / Licensed under Ankama Studio
Image by Ankama Studio / Wakfu: The Animated Serie / Licensed under Ankama Studio
Sound assets
The musical themes were found on YouTube from the Wakfu franchise.
Home_Theme_Game: “Wakfu OST - Bonta Capital” by Wakfu MMORPG — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPI4lFh7TOg
Main_Theme_Game: “L’enfer du Boufbowl” by Guillaume Houzé — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAycg9on07E
End_Theme_Game: “Wakfu Opening Song (version instrumentale)” by Guillaume Houzé — https://youtu.be/cp1J7CJ7A8w?si=36F48Wo1f22nn2RZ