Creative Director on On The Surface
A narrative mobile game for social integration. Played on a WhatsApp style interface, players converse in real time with a group of teenage friends, affecting their day to day.
Together with Cohere, I pitched and secured funding from the client The Challenge then went on to build a team and deliver the product.
The project took a year during my time at Digital Liberties.
behind the scenes +
behind the scenes +
Step 1: Pitching
Digital Liberties partnered with Cohere to pitch to The Challenge, a UK social integration charity, on a game. I worked with the CEO of Cohere to build a vision and treatment which we took as a duo to the client.
Spoiler alert, we got the gig!
Step 2: Building a team
I built a team from my networks and got to work with incredible talent. The team was made up of:
Xalavier Nelson - narrative design (Strange Scaffold)
Johnnemann Nordhagen - programming (Gone Home)
Leyre Ley - artist (Verdungeon)
And myself straddling both a creative director and production role.
Step 3: Research
The narrative designer and I spent a few weeks touring The Challenge centres around the UK interviewing young people. We wanted to get the tone and narrative true to teenagers’ lived experiences at the time.
Step 4: Development
During development I both led the team, keeping them true to the vision, and with the support of Cohere, handled all client meetings.
Step 5: A happy client!
We delivered the game on time and only slightly over budget with a very happy client at the end.
The game was freely available on the Apple and Google Play Stores and used by The Challenge in workshops.