Creating the world and designs of this fitness fueled adventure.

Initial concepts

The primary idea for this game sprung from a conversation on microtransactions in mobile games and whether it was possible to use them for good. We quickly realized that replacing currency with another form of input (in this case working out) could take the habit of “pay to win” and twist it so that it becomes a force for good. There was lots of exploration into exactly how we could track/incorporate exercising into a game, but eventually we decided that the step tracker everyone has in their pocket already is a good start.

The world of Rocketfit

Deciding on a space theme for this puzzle game was not very difficult. We knew that we didn’t want anything too directly related to the act of working out so that the game wouldn’t feel like a standard exercise app. So naturally we decided on an Alien who sweats fuel and explores planets looking for rocks and gems!

Designing for RNG

Much of this game would have to be procedurally generated, meaning I would not have full control over what a user see’s at each moment unless I was going to design thousands of unique screens. The solution to this was to create a series of planet designs, cloud designs, and color schemes which could be swapped out to created thousands of unique planets.

Bringing it all together

With the space theme set and our exercise system in place I set out to find the type and colors in a way that would appeal to gamers and keep them engaged with this world. The first challenge was designing the space itself, eventually adding in the texture of overlapping gradients to add some fun and mystery to the backgrounds. Bright purples and oranges were used over blacks to keep everything upbeat and energetic. Lastly I selected the Saira typeface, which is reminiscent of Eurostile and has a very spacey feel to it. The game we created is fun and does a lot of good as well, these design choices allow players to have a blast while interacting with Rocketfit.