SUMMARY
Bon Appetit is a 3d endless runner game that combines cooking and collectible elements, developed over the course of nine months and released on the Google Play store.
ROLE
User interface design, 3d modelling, animation.
TEAM
Hannah Zaitlin
Amy Liu
Andrew Ting
Ethan Zhang
Eva Ruiz
Umut Polat
CONCEPT
scoping
When I joined the project, Bon Appetit existed as a 2d jam project created for the UBC Game Dev Club jam. Having decided that the concept was strong enough to develop into a full mobile game, the team recruited me to provide UI, UX, and 3d assets to take the project to a professional level.
The game took the form of a classic endless runner where the player controls a chef running through a kitchen. As a twist, the player must pick up “ingredient” items along the level and combine them in order to create recipes that will give them speed boosts.
The game combined runner elements such as Subway Surfer and Temple Run with high-speed cooking game elements such as Overcooked.
Screenshots from Subway Surfer and Overcooked.
wireframing
The team worked together to create a design document detailing which features would need to be added for the final game. I then began by creating wireframes of the main play screen.
One of our challenges was in conveying the player’s inventory in a way that was understandable at a glance, without taking up too much screen space. I experimented with several versions of stackable menus that would automatically prioritize ingredients that were close to completing a recipe.
Wireframe mockups of the main play screen.
With the general UI decided, I created base template buttons for the 2d artist to apply sprites to while I began work on the 3d game assets.
DEVELOPMENT
visual identity
My next task was to develop a visual identity for the games 3d environment. Collaborating with the 2d artist, we developed a simplified, saturated palette so that each food item would be easily recognizable.
I began by transforming all of the 2d ingredient sprites into 3d models. The models were built in Blender and textured using Photoshop. I then imported the models to Unity, and collaborated with the developers to create a shader to add highlights and shadows.
A collection of some of the ingredient models viewed in-game.
I repeated this process to create a number of environmental kitchen objects. To create the effect of an endless environment for the player to run through, these environmental assets were combined into over 30 kitchen prefabs that were procedurally repeated as the game progressed. This created the effect of a constantly changing, unique environment.
Examples of kitchen prefabs.
animation
The most complex models in the game were for the player character, the Chef, and the enemy character, the Critic. Both models required an easily readable and responsive moveset of jumping, sidestepping, sliding and falling. An unique challenge for these character designs is that they would exclusively be viewed from behind, meaning that the animations needed to be expressive enough to convey emotions without showing facial features.
refinement
Once all of the art, animations, and UI assets were implemented, the final stage was playtesting and polish to ensure that all of the assets worked together. During this time I also provided wireframes and copywriting for all of the secondary menus and store pages. After nine months of work, Bon Appetit was released for download on the Google Play store.
REFLECTION
reflection
This was my first time bringing an independent project to a fully released level of completion. This project really helped me understand the saying of 90/10: the idea that the last 10% of polish on a project takes 90% of the time. As a small team, I largely decided on my own tasks and level of polish. This allowed me to gain greater attention to detail and greater self-discipline, as well as an understanding of the entire game design pipeline.
Because this project took place during my final semester of University and during the Covid-19 pandemic, I was able to gain experience in managing my time effectively and working remotely with a team.
next steps
Bon Appetite is currently released on the Google Play store and has over 100 downloads. The game received positive feedback for its easily understandable mechanics and playful art style. The team and I continue to add polish and bug fixes and are aiming for a web and Apple App Store release in the coming months.
