Fristy vs. The Seagulls

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  Title Screen

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  Fristy the Clownfish in its ultimate form!

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  Info Page

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  Gameplay

Inspiration

We're a big fan of all things silly, and big haters of boring chatbot experiences, so why not combine the two into a whimsical experience which solves this problem whilst having a bit of fun! In particular, we took a lot of inspiration from the Sussex Coast, not only because of our connections to the area but also that of the sponsor of the main track we're aiming for Hastings Direct.

In this sense, we created the game with a journey in mind - navigating from Worthing (the hometown of one of our team members) to Hastings!

What it does

We're created a immersive, seaside-themed experience which is designed to reduce the frustration felt by users of customer service chatbot solutions. The program includes a constant countdown of an estimated wait-time to be connected with an agent, and offers the user a chance to either find more information about their query or play a game whilst they wait!

"Fristy vs. the Seagulls" is a story-based 2D sidescroller which tells the story of Fristy, a clownfish of whom is on a quest to recover his boyfriend, Brightling, from the clutches of evil Seagulls. On his journey, he finds a variety of trinkets - ranging from cogs to pure radiation - to build his ultimate humanoid form and get his revenge. This game isn't without reason though - the story-driven approach is aimed at encouraging users to feel more connected to a chatbot service of which is infamously viewed as impersonal. We hope that our project will encourage more users to remain on a webpage as they await support!

How we built it

We built the project almost entirely in Unity 2D using C#, with some additional animations being made in AfterEffects.

Challenges we ran into

We ran into a lot of challenges! One team member practically learned Unity from scratch (which left lots of space for silly formatting/object errors!) whilst another had never used Unity for 2D - which required learning of a different system for shaders, animation etc. There were definitely a few moments (most of which were quite late at night!) where we felt like we were hitting a brick wall (looking at you EventSystem) but we persevered through!

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're incredibly proud of the artwork behind the project, the look and feel of the experience overall as well as the cohesive piece that this has turned out to be. This project was no easy feat, but we learned an awful lot and think that we have something really cool to show for it!

What we learned

As a duo (with 1/2 of us having less than a week's experience in Unity!) we've learned an incredible amount during this project. From the very basics, to more complex visual effects, we learned not only how to make the code work but also that we work really well together as a team - knowing where to make compromises, where to take breaks, and where to prioritise the project ahead.

What's next for Fristy vs. The Seagulls

We'd love to expand on this experience, both in terms of the minigame (extra lore, transitions between scenes focussed on the Sussex coastline, and an overall cleaner game!) and the info/chatbot elements (ChatGPT integration to help assist with queries, clickable links to company webpages, etc.) We'd also love to add Spotify Integration (to generate a playlist for you whilst you wait!) and add additional accessibility features to ensure that anyone can play Fristy vs. The Seagulls!

Built With

• aftereffects
• c#
• unity