Planting Ideas, Growing Skills: A Designer's Leap into a Gardening game
I’m Pia Holtel, a 3rd Creative Media and Game Technologies artist. My team and I worked on creating a gardening game focused on data visualization for Smart Cities. My responsibilities spanned across concepting gameplay, researching, designing UI, and even transforming my 2D artwork into 3D models - a new and exciting challenge for me.
I never had to take over that many designer tasks in a project, but it was a fun and challenging opportunity to broaden my skills. Still, being without a designer for the first five weeks had been a struggle, so we were very happy when Abdulla Almheiri, an experienced designer, joined the team. He brought structure and a clearer direction, which I am very grateful for.
Despite the initial hurdles, I learned a lot throughout the project. As a 2D artist, dabbling in 3D modeling was completely new for me. My knowledge of it was basic at best, but by the end, I felt confident navigating the 3D modeling software and even found my own workflow. I also got hands-on experience with UI design, which was something I hadn’t done much of before. Plus, I dove deep into research - everything from what makes farming games fun, to optimizing 3D models for mobile devices, and even how to care for plants and animals in a virtual garden.
While I would have loved for our final product to be more polished as my perfectionistic tendencies see all the imperfections and what could have been improved, I need to remind myself that we weren’t asked to deliver a final game. We were asked to deliver a nice concept. And considering that I’m relatively new to 3D, I’m proud of what I made and that I could see myself improving.
I’m happy and grateful I got to work in a lovely team, and I am proud that despite the struggles we had and problems we encountered, we were able to make a cute little gardening game.
Ready for a New Challenge?
Did this story spark your enthusiasm for Smart Cities as a dynamic learning environment? If so, we’d love to hear from you! As a research group, we’re always eager to meet new students and explore opportunities for completing your graduation project or internship with us. Interested? Simply send us a WhatsApp or stop by our office (G6.25). We look forward to connecting with you soon!
