WordFuel was created during the course Interaction Design Project. The task given in the course was to design a game that highlight issues of social exclusion that students experience on Chalmers University. Me and my project group decided to raise awareness about how international students can be excluded due to the language barrier.
WordFuel was developed and implemented with Unity.
How might we design a game that not only highlights social exclusion due to the language barrier, but also is fun and an opportunity to connect with people?
To gain a deeper understanding about social exclusion due to the language barrier, a questionnaire was sent out to both international students as well as Swedish students. The questionnaire revealed that 9 out of 11 international students at Chalmers University experienced situations of exclusion due to not speaking Swedish, primarily in social gatherings. In the contrary, Swedish students claimed to often forgetting about the language barrier and thus changed to speaking Swedish unintentionally.
After multiple ideation sessions the group decided on creating a digital co-op game where two players collaboratively controls a character on a horizontal axis. This with a goal to catch falling English words while avoiding Swedish ones.
With defined requirements at hand, we started building the game in Unity. The game was tested with users through play testing, followed up with interviews and UX-curves. Based on the results the game was refined and further developed.
WordFuel is a co-op game where the players collaboratively control one character with the use of microphones. One player is in control of moving the character to left and the other player to the right. The game is constantly comparing the input of the microphones. The microphone that is recording the highest sound will move the character in the corresponding direction.
The goal of the game is to catch English words while avoiding Swedish words. If the players accidentaly catch a Swedish word or fails to catch an English word they lose a life. Additionally the players are punished by making the game screen shake for a while. As the game progresses it gradually gets harder, the words starts to fall more frequently and they start moving randomly.
To succeed in the game, the players need to cooperate and take turns making sound. This is way of interacting works as a metaphor for how conversations are in real life. Additionally, the game is thought to highlight how hard it is for a Swedish student to stick to English.
