2024 - Peach Fuzz
SIDE PROJECTS
Outside of paying work I really enjoy the thrill of game jams and hackathons! I have only done a few, but I have learned valuable lessons every time, including how to take the lead, to prioritize for a very specific MVP, and to communicate with people I have just met who may not yet understand the value of UX/UI design.
Link coming soon...
The Devil Went Down to Vegas
Video Game - Global Game Jam - January 2016
Team: Shalyn Oswald (storyline/copy;designer), Pierre Bienaime (music/sVideoound creator), Devore Johnson (3D graphic designer), Andrew Lohmann (developer), John Meara (Unity developer).
We were given a weekend and a theme: Rituals. From there we decided not to just go with the expected cult theme but to tie it in with real rituals, like the one many people who struggle with a gambling addiction go through when they think it may help their odds in winning.
My Role
I wrote out the story/copy and created the storyboard. I created the home screen, seen to the left, as well as the buttons that overlay in the game.
The Story
You go to Las Vegas for the first time, only to realize by the time it is too late that you have a serious gambling addiction. You have lost all of your money and just gambled away your home. While you are in your hotel room grieving for your fate a voice begins to talk. Though there is nobody in the room, he says that he will get your house and allow you a week to pay him back within a week. If you do not, he will own your soul. You don't really believe in that stuff, so you agree. Now you begin to try to figure out what color underwear is lucky today...
WHAT IS USER EXPERIENCE (DESIGN)
Class Keynote Presentation - January 2016
After meeting a student of Digital Marketing at a networking event I was asked to come in and teach an hour class on UX design. I have always enjoyed teaching and helping people understand the value of UX, as it oftentimes gets overlooked and dismissed.
I created this slideshow with their digital marketing knowledge in mind and inserted a few "ux" items into it, including the time-arrow and easy-to-follow animations/transitions. I had a lot of fun doing this and would definitely teach again!
Website - Hackathon - November 2015
WINNER - Most Novel Concept
Team: Shalyn Oswald (UX/wireframes, concept), Matthew Morrisey (developer), Ammar Moheize (PM)
UX designers and product managers were given 1 day to come up with a website idea based on some API constraints. We were then to present this idea about a week later to developers and allow them to choose the idea they most wanted to work on.
The Idea
There are a lot of DIY, craft, and repair help websites out there that provide good walkthroughs of each process, but are severely lacking in terms of helping with finding the needed materials. Get It Done is meant to fix this issue by pulling from Amazon/Home Depot APIs, allowing the instruction-creator to link to the specific items needed, as well as alternatives, which would then allow the user to easily add all or some of the items to their Amazon/Home Depot cart. Essentially you are able to order your own 'kits' for any project that you could find on the website.
My Role
I came up with the idea and name and worked with the team to create a good layout; created the wireframes and logo, and worked directly with the developer.
As we only had 3 members, this project was nowhere near done by the end, but we all had a great time and ended up winning for most novel concept.
Video Game - Game Jam - August 2015
Team: Shalyn Oswald (Story/Copy, graphic design), Ozan Baduklu (music creator), Carmelo Citera (graphic designer), Eduard Erlikh (developer), Michael Campbell (developer)
We were given a weekend and a theme: You Are Not The Monster, based off of the Ludum Dare 33 community theme choice. It is a Gallaga-type game that the developers really wanted to create, and wanting to work well with them I created a storyline that tied the theme to the game. I had a great time doing this!
My Role
I wrote out the story/copy and created the storyboard for the intro movie, and created the image at the Start screen as well as some of the screens/graphics in the intro. I also designed the UI layout within the game.
The Story
You were fighting an intergallactic war when you were taken prisoner. Your crew is able to hijack the enemy ship and, after looking through their data, you realize that they had joined forces with another enemy and planned to destroy your home planet. You don't have much time, so you head to the planet to warn them, but you cannot communicate with them via the ship, so you must land. Unfortunately your people don't know that it is you that is on the ship, all they see is the enemy and they try to stop you from reaching the planet. The only way to save the lives of your people is to, unfortunately, kill some of them.