Go Deeper

GAME DESIGN, UI, UX, ILLUSTRATION, ANIMATION

Go Deeper could be pitched this way: ‘An action game in which you will defeat sci-fi creatures using colours’. It’s DB&R Game Studio’s first commercial project for mobile devices. I co-defined the general concept and designed all the game system, UI, illustrations, characters, animations and all the different visual assets. A complete UX project with a strong focus on illustration and character design.

Game system

Go Deeper presents an easy-to-play game system based on color combinations. You must defeat your enemies by destroying their color sequences using only three buttons, some useful offensive and defensive items and, of course, your skill.

The setting

You play as an unnamed hero trying to take control of a tower in a huge struggle between all kinds of Sci-fi creatures: devious aliens with psychic powers, monsters made of goo, animal-like mutants, robots, zombies, vampires and many other.

Enemies and abilities

Enemies are tougher as the game progresses, but the differences between them are not limited to longer color panels—and therefor, higher resilience—. Every enemy counts on a special ability affecting the game in many ways.

Items

You can use your experience points to buy offensive and defensive items. These items are a big help in the most advanced levels. Once ‘purchased’, they are stored in your inventory and you can select any of them using the left button on the screen.

Art direction

Go Deeper’s art direction is based on flat vector-based characters, items and UI elements over more complex bitmap backgrounds. A proper contrast is achieved by blurring the backgrounds and contrasting the color palettes, using saturated and bright colors on the foreground and darker ones in the backgrounds. Typography and UI elements remain extremely simple, clean and highly visible. Buttons and interactive elements are big and clear in order to be used comfortably on tactile devices.

Characters

Besides the interface elements—especially action buttons and color panels—the characters are the real protagonists of the game. They were animated frame-to-frame, delivering very simple but effective results for each action. All the visual assets are reduced to the essential, minimizing the costs of production. Go Deeper presents 25 different enemies plus 5 bosses, all of them with their own design, animations, routines and special abilities. Here you can find some of them.