¡Ponte Trucha!
Android mobile game that teaches children how to pack a GoBag (supply bag for emergency situations).
Demo Video
General Info
Description
“In ¡Ponte Trucha!, a boy named Manuel Trucha has to prepare a bag to evacuate his house before a natural disaster strikes his hometown. In the first part of the game, help him pack useful things and equipment that will help him during his evacuation. In the second part, guide Manuel through his hometown and get him safely to a safe zone using the items you packed earlier."
This game was developed as a demo project for videogame contest “Kuxtal” in 2016 as a reference for the contestants. Kuxtal, organized by the university Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey alongside CADENA A.C. and CONAPRED, aimed to develop educational videogames to teach security protocols for little children living in zones prone to natural disasters.
Game Design & Mechanics
We chose two learning aspects as goals for our game, based on research documents provided by CADENA A.C.:
- Learn how to pack a GoBag in order to reach a safe spot.
- A person packing a GoBag should pack: non perishable food, bottled water, higiene items, and adequate clothing and shoes.
These goals, translated to game mechanics were:
- Each level in the game comprises two stages.
- On stage one, the player chooses what to pack inside the bag.
- On the second stage, the player needs to reach point B (a safe spot) from point A (his house) traversing a tiled map.
- Obstacles and incidents appear randomly on the map. Different events can happen for different scenarios.
- There are two scenarios: a town fire and a flood.
- Each scenario is comprised of three levels of increasing difficulty. The larger the map, the more difficult it is to survive.
Features
- Procedurally generated maps, with randomly placed obstacles, incidents and randomly shaped bag.
- Two emergency scenarios: fire and flood.
- Feedback and info on relevant learning aspects.
Roles & Tasks
I worked on this game with my artist friend Pablo Mendizabal (You can check more of his amazing work here). We developed the concept, came up with the mechanics, planned & managed the development and release via Google Play.
Being a part of a two-man team, I occuppied different roles with varying tasks from concept creation to delivering the final product:
- Game design:
Came up with core game mechanics and expanding around them. Paper prototype testing and game balancing.
- Project management:
Used Trello as a kanban board to organize and delegate tasks.
- Software engineering:
Designed and developed the game architecture. Managed version control with Git+Bitbucket. Planned and carried out tests.
- Gameplay, UI and shader programming:
Developed designed game mechanics. Programmed the technical solution based on the designed architecture. Coded high and low level behaviours. Co-designed and programmed the UI. Coded surface shaders. Integrated the Steamworks API inside Unity.
Additional Links
Some additional links regarding this game:
- Store page: Google Play
- Press: Press sheet & kit
- Platforms: Made With Unity
- Story: Game Design in Don’t Drop the Bass
