BE
INTERNET
AWESOME
I got to lead the visual development for all four games as well as produce the trailers for Google Interland, an innovative educational platform designed to teach internet safety to users of all ages. As part of Google’s broader initiative to promote digital literacy and responsible online behavior, Interland offers an engaging and interactive experience that empowers users to navigate the online world safely.
By gamifying internet safety concepts, Interland fosters a deeper understanding of crucial digital skills in an accessible and enjoyable manner.
My Role
- Art director
- Director
My Responsibilities
- Art direction
- Animation + Motion Direction
- Production design
- Visual development
- Cinematic/Trailer direction
My Deliverables
- Design guides
- Storyboards
- Trailers
- Promotion assets
Client
Type
Educational games
Browser experience
Year
2017
Awards & Mentions
- European Design Awards
- FWA Top 100
- FWA site of the day
- Awwwards site of the day.
SUCH A DREAM PROJECT
In this project, my primary responsibility was to collaborate with the creative director to craft character designs and art direction for each game, ensuring they aligned with Google’s brand identity and purpose. I took the lead in directing character animation, camera work, and designing the visual language for the games and their levels.
JUST TO MAKE THING EVEN MORE FUN, I got to directed a couple of trailers to promote the games upon release, ensuring they effectively communicated the unique features and appeal of each title to the public.
THE ASK
I was appointed to lead a team in crafting the visual identity for the worlds and characters, in game animation style and also promotional material including two trailers for Interland, a series of four educational games being produced by North Kingdom for Google’s Be Internet Awesome program.
THE WORK
I began by establishing the parameters of the low poly style across all four games, ensuring coherence between the characters and their respective environments. This involved understanding how the gameplay of each game would influence the visual language of its environment. A crucial aspect was maintaining fidelity to Google’s brand identity throughout the design process, ensuring a harmonious integration with their overarching vision.
Furthermore, I allocated the brand colors across the various game worlds and identified complementary colors for the villains to enhance their visibility and distinguish them within the game environment.
A lot of the design work was first done as sketches but as the project got more complex I switched to designing the elements directly in 3D. Last step was to sit with the developers in WebGL and tweak sizes, colours, backgrounds and particles.
Short list of things I worked on:
- Animation guides for all characters and any technical animation in the games
- Art direction and design guides for all characters and worlds for each game
- WebGL look development to optimize the output for a browser game
- Directing and editing the trailers for the games
- …and more but I forget now
THE RESULT
The project had and has huge success achieving change all around the world and I’m super glad I got to work on, and define so much of this product for so many to enjoy.
For teachers, a curriculum was designed with lesson plans that have received the ISTE Seal of Alignment. In the first four months, the curriculum was downloaded 30 000 times and Interland was played over 163 000 hours.
Since it’s release, Google Interland has been localised in many languages, helping children all over the world to become safer online.
