Dragon’s Dreams is an innovative educational and entertaining 3D game specifically designed for children aged 4 to 12, combining immersive spatial exploration with advanced object recognition challenges. The game transports players into richly crafted spherical environments or diverse interactive locations, where they embark on a quest to discover and identify various objects ranging from alphabets and numbers to fruits and sweets.

UI/UX Design

I crafted intuitive, child-friendly interfaces that simplify navigation and interaction by integrating large touch targets, clear visual feedback, and seamless transitions between 2D UI elements and 3D dragon models. This approach enhanced user engagement, making the experience both immersive and rewarding.

Levels Design

I designed and developed levels, creating diverse environments like spherical arenas and themed locations that encourage exploration and object recognition. I placed interactive objects and optimized respawn points to balance difficulty and maintain player motivation.

Systems Design

I built a modular system, separating core components like environment, characters, rewards and upgrades. Created behavior trees and state machines for AI and companion functionalities, ensuring naturalistic behaviors. Used centralized configs for easy balancing. 

Storytelling

I created a clear and engaging learning story to introduce players to the main game mechanics. This tutorial guides children step-by-step through using gyroscope controls, identifying and selecting objects, and interacting with their dragon companion. The learning story uses simple language, visual cues, and interactive prompts.

Sound Design

I collaborated closely with the sound designer to develop an immersive audio experience. Together, we crafted sound effects and musical themes that complement the game’s educational and magical atmosphere, enhancing player engagement and emotional connection.

Problems Solving

Our primary challenge was to integrate mechanics with gyroscope-based controls. The key difficulty was adapting traditional gameplay to a control scheme driven by device tilt and rotation, especially across a wide range of device types and brands with varying hardware capabilities. To address this, I dedicated weeks to refining responsiveness, developing precise tilt thresholds, smoothing acceleration curves, and implementing a centered reticle for intuitive object selection.

Reflection

The development phase lasted just over a year, with a team of five: myself as the project owner, designer, and manager, along with two artists and two coders. Throughout the process, we enjoyed tackling fun challenges, solving problems together, and learning from each other. The experience strengthened our teamwork skills and provided valuable insights into game design and development. Our main goal was to gain practical knowledge and improve our collaborative abilities through this project.