Gold in UX, Interface, and Navigation for Games
Silver in Integrated Graphic Design
Silver in Digital Design
Silver in Online Games
Silver in Interactive Design
Bronze in Digital Tools and Utilities
Bronze in PC games
Bronze in Branding: Media
The Problem
Many fears that interrupt people's lives are not necessary for their survival and instead hold them back from enjoying their lives. Due to the nature of fear as a perceived negative emotion, they avoid fear rather than confronting it. If people do face their fears, it is often against their wishes
Our Solution
Maelstrom is a personalized fear experience driven by AI, interactive storytelling, and puzzle-solving. This mystery game turns users' fear into an adaptive and entertaining narrative.
The implementation of AI mirrors users' fears, allowing them to confront their specific fears from a removed perspective, promoting constructive introspection.
Maelstrom uses the psychology behind the horror genre to create puzzles and mysteries for the user to solve. The user interacts with a unique cast of AI personalities that aid the user on their journey. These interactions create a productive environment for the user to learn more about themselves and confront their fears while becoming engrossed in the detailed story and characters.
Personal Significance
Throughout the course of this project, I was able to explore the possibilities of unconventional use cases for AI as well as my passion for game design UX. I found myself immersed in designing the pacing, characters, and narrative elements in order to deliver the precise psychological response we were after in users.
Our process gave me exposure to agile development methods and rapid prototyping, which streamlined our workflow significantly, resulting in a stronger end product.
Gameplay prototyped using Figma
My Role
Interaction Designer
UX Designer
I'll spare you the extra scrolling...
Click through to our process book below for a deep dive into our process!
