Emily O’Neal
I’m experience designer, specializing in immersive and game design. I’m based out of Brooklyn, NY.
Nano
2023 | Lighthaus
TOOLS: Unity, Figma
Overview
Lighthaus has been making educational experiences for over a decade. Over the years, it’s become clear to us that education games tend to fall short when it comes to being both fun and educational.
During interviews with teachers and students, we identified the problems we wanted to address with Nano:
- Fun Deficit: Educational games often prioritize instruction at the expense of enjoyment, resulting in uninspiring experiences.
- Beyond the Classroom: Existing learning experiences usually don’t stack up as standalone games. They tend to limit player exploration and lack dynamic gameplay.
Exploration
After our initial research and competitive analysis, it was clear the meat of the problem is in the game design itself. I had to design an educational experience that was as fun and engaging as any other commercial VR game.
I organized a 3-week design sprint for the team to come together and “find the fun.” Team members from different teams were invited to explore different ideas via concept art, storyboards, and Unity prototypes.
Here are some ideas we explored:
Prototyping, Pitching & Pivoting
After selecting ideas from the sprint, we crafted a concept trailer featuring final art to present to potential investors.
During trailer production, it became evident that the mechanics we selected and the breadth of learning design exceeded the capacity of our small team and one-year timeline. Leveraging our existing testable ideas, we collaborated with students to pinpoint the most enjoyable candidates for our core game loop.
With the insights we gathered from students, I devised a series of gameplay systems all set within an immune cell, with our primary learning goal focusing on protein synthesis.
Art Directing a Cell
Part of my solution for the “fun deficit” problem was to create a dynamic, living cell. Every element of the cell should feel like it’s working with the player on keeping the cell alive and so I wanted to make each of them feel like a character in the game. I worked closely with our team of artists to develop an organic, gloopy style for the cell’s organelles. We relentlessly iterated on the style and animations until they all stretched, blobbed, and bobbed exactly how we wanted them to.
Designing the UI
In designing the game’s interface, my focus is on creating a smooth, seamless, and satisfying experience. In VR, this entails prioritizing diagetic interfaces and leveraging actions that player is already comfortable with.
For each key interface interaction, I did a deep dive into existing VR UI best practices, as they’re evolving all the time, and sketched out concepts accordingly. Once settled on an idea, I produced an animatic and shared it with the engineering and art teams for implementation.
Putting It All Together
With a team of organelle sidekicks and a protein crafting core loop, the player is empowered to take control of their immune cell: make energy, collect resources, unlock new weapons, and kill pathogens.
I put together comprehensive design documentation including flow charts, diagrams, and storyboards for each system in the game and the archetecture of a level. I worked closely with the engineering team to develop custom tools in Unity so I could build out and test combat scenarios; craft flexible narrative systems; and design levels.
Researching with Students, Gamers, and Beyond
Without a formal research team, I was heavily involved in testing portotypes of the game with VR-users, students, and gamers. We piloted early versions of Nano at high schools in Los Angeles. I also conducted dozens of playtests sessions at my office. Our focus was to make sure we were (1) achieving our learning goals and (2) making a fun game for everyone.Key insights revealed that an excessive number of biology terms overwhelmed players. Additionally, players perceived the game as a typical "education game" until they encountered the combat portion of gameplay.
The Final Product
Our final game successfully tackled most of the issues identified during testing. We improved early-game support for key terms and simplified language for less crucial ones. We also introduced an in-game codex with all terms and additional information, along with tutorial instructions for proteins and pathogens. Furthermore, we balanced learning and combat-focused levels for better game flow.Nano debuted on the Meta Quest Store in October 2023 and has since maintained an outstanding 4.9-star rating. It garnered Meta's prestigious Best of Quest and App of the Year awards. Moreover, it has been adopted by schools across the country, notably becoming part of the compulsory science curriculum for high school students in a Dallas school district.