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CAPTAIN GAP:
STATION MASTER
Vesalius Trust-a-Thon (Hack-a-Thon) 2023; MAPK/ERK Signaling Pathway Mini-Game
Summary
Based on the MAPK/ERK signaling pathway, Captain GAP: Station Master, introduces the audience to an important signaling pathway associated with many cancers via a fun mini-game.
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Audience
High Schoolers and Undergraduates
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My Role
Project Manager, Social Media Coordinator, UI/UX Designer & Developer
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Team
Alex McDonough, Leah Balsan, Lauren Kawamura, Sara Lung, Nolan Pakizer, Raisa Rodríguez, Helen Thio
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Timeline
2 weeks in Fall of 2023
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Tools
Unity Engine, Adobe Illustrator, After Effects, Cinema4D, Blender, Figma, Soundtrap
The Problem
The challenge for the 2023 Vesalius Trust-a-Thon (Hack-a-Thon), was to create a scientific- or medical-themed communication piece inspired by the theme “Bridge the Gap”. Not only was our concept inspired by a play on words, but we also wanted to create a game that bridges the gap between the serious topic of
cancer research in a fun and innocuous way for players to learn.
The problem we were mainly tackling was
A) How to gamify the MAPK/ERK pathway and
B) How to make a game about a molecular pathway appealing to our audience.
Design Goals
01
Create a scientifically accurate mini-game that includes factors of the MAPK/ERK pathway and the gameplay complements the molecular pathway.
02
Design a themed game that could be enticing and look polished to a general audience.
03
Focus on creating a simplified product that would fit in a shortened timeline along with working with a team of graduate students with a limited schedule.
Design Process
Research & Ideation
The project was kick-started with a full team meeting of brainstorming and pitching game concepts. The brainstorming session consisted of each person on the team coming up with 2-3 ideas. We then pitched our ideas and voted on what idea we were most excited to work on and fit our project goals:
1) Matches the Trust-a-Thon theme,
2) Had a distinctive theme, and
3) A fun but simple gameplay that beginner coders could program.
Management & Planning
The first meeting, along with brainstorming, consisted of pulse checks, giving people roles/ teams, setting up
the primary timeline, and setting up the main mode
of communication (Discord). Teams were broken up into pre-production, assets, animation, UI/UX, programming, sound design, and social media. Overall management and planning were led by me, and captain roles were given to Front End (Leah Balsan) and Back End (Sara Lung) to divide the work and points of communication.
The timeline was created to give as much buffer room as possible to all teams. Whatever time we thought each team needed was doubled (if not tripled) to make sure the project stayed on track and didn’t stall. Teams had quick meetings every other day to make sure there was communication during production and as we got closer to due dates we had meetings as needed.
Pre-Production & Asset Design
Pre-production consisted of creating a style guide that all
our designers could work with along with brainstorming character designs that could easily be made into 3D assets. The team also came up with a story concept and rough script that would match the space station theme.
Asset Production
Blender was chosen as our main modeling software for the assets within the game because all of our designers were comfortable modeling within this program, and it was trouble-free to import Blender models into Unity.
Animation
Animations were made in Cinema4D and Adobe After Effects. The main animations that we needed for this project were background animations and 2D assets such as the timer animation. These animations were then exported as PNGs, handed off to the programming team, and inserted into Unity’s animation system.
UI/UX Design
The general UI format of the game was designed in Figma to make sure users could fluidly move throughout and create a rough draft of what the UI assets would look like. Once a basic wireframe of the game was created, the UI sketches were brought into Adobe Illustrator and rendered out.
The assets were created to match the space theme and
the metallic and cool color tones.
The assets were then brought into Unity to add functionality.
Space_Chill1Lauren Kawamura
00:00 / 04:35
Music Production
The background music and sound effects used in-game were created in Soundtrap. The themes of the game, character designs, and gameplay were taken into consideration when creating the game's music.
The background music we ended up deciding on had an intergalactic style with cute motifs thrown within the score.
Social Media
Another big portion of the Trust-a-Thon was dedicated to promoting the game and fundraising, so we created a
small team for social media. We created a calendar for
social media posts along with brainstorming ideas for what could be used as content. A style guide and template were created to keep the social media posts cohesive. We made sure to use platforms such as Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook. The content was created both in post format and story format so it could reach a wider audience.
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Programming
We developed the mini-game in Unity 2022.3. The first week was dedicated to drafting out gameplay, level design, and prototyping the core game mechanics into Unity.
The prototype consisted of blocking out the main game stage and making sure the controls worked.
For week 2, we transferred finished assets into the game and added in animations to react with the gameplay.
The UI was programmed on a separate Unity file and it was eventually transferred onto the main prototype. The
last two days of Trust-a-Thon were dedicated to debugging and any stretch goals we wanted to add to the game.
The game was play-tested by the main team and then built out for Windows OS for submission.
Conclusion
Results
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On Instagram, in less than two weeks, we got exponential engagement and got around 500 likes in total on the platform.
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Fundraised $831 on GoFundMe.
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Placed 2nd overall in the competition.
Next Steps
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Have the game further playtested for debugging purposes and user engagement.
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The gameplay is a bit too hard for players and needs to be adjusted to best fit future players.
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The game needs to be built out to WebGL for easy access.
“The gameplay is a bit too difficult.
It’s definitely challenging but it almost feels unfair at times.
I’m new to gaming (laughed).”
Want to Play?
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