GRAVITRIX

Description

A PC game that captures the free spirit and fun of extreme pogo-sticking. It aims to create awareness about this extreme sport and inspire more people to explore the possibilities of pogo sticks in addition to kindling excitement among the current pogo enthusiasts.

Client

XPogo

Year

2024

Project Goal

To capture the fantasy of pogo sticking: Punk Rock spirit, sense of freedom. And spread the sport of pogo, inspiring more people to try pogo.

XPOGO

Xpogo is led by a small crew of dedicated people, bound together by a love for all things Pogo and an interest in spreading the sport across the world. Xpogo produce hundreds of live performances & competitions each year, making pogo films from all corners of the planet.

Overall Production Process

My Role

I was responsible for UI design, Website design, Poster design, Logo design, User experience, and User research.

resesarch

To better understand the essence of Pogo, I led the interview with 5 Pogo experts and created survey questions to gain professional insights to help develop the game experience, allowing the player to feel more engaged.

Key Insights

Environment Setting:

Open-spaced environment

Have Objects to bounce on
Different materials give different bounce feedback

Motivation for Pogoing:

Explore the space
Seeing from high

Feeling Get from Pogoing:

Rhythm
Adaptability
Freedom

Physics of Pogo and Tricks:

Air pressure
Tilting stick change directions
Underleg, Grab, Flip, Stick movement

ideation

Initial Ideation

Game Design Ideation

At first, the map was centered around "height" since Pogo is about jumping. So the initial set up was a tower with 3 levels. However, after the research and feedbacks, the decision was made to change the tower to a more open-spaced playground, in a cyberpunk style.

uI/UX Iterations

Collectibles HUD UIs

Problems:

The collectibles weren't intuitive enough:
1. The shapes of the collectibles didn't directly reflect the actual props in the scene. Players found it hard to relate.
2. There were no incentives for the players to perform tricks.
3. Players found it hard to distinguish between coins and cheers.

Solutions:

1. Replacing the "random" collectible shapes with in-game models.
2. Adding a "cheer system" to incentify players to explore the ricks: doing tricks —> getting cheers —> exchange for certain props
3. Using different colors for the coins and cheers' frame as well as colored UIs.

Tutorials

Before

After

Problems:

1. Players unfamiliar with controllers struggled to learn some controls — and found it hard to understand which button the tutorials were referring to.
2. Not enough time to fully learn the controls.
3. Players had difficulty connecting certain control actions to the wording used in the tutorials.

Solutions:

1. Adding an image of the controller with labels showing the corresponding controls in their respective positions.
2. Integrate a tutorial tunnel for the players to focus on learning the skills.
3. Adding symbols that showcase certain movements of the controller.

Final UIs