The Brief: Designing games for a sustainable ocean
Under the guidance of Creative Assembly, NextGen students were given a specific brief—to develop a game that highlights the importance of ocean sustainability and addresses the threats faced by our oceans. Ocean Generation, a charity chosen by CA employees, provided the vital environmental issue to be addressed.
Creative Assembly strongly believes in the power of gaming for education and philanthropy. This project, known as Ocean Hack, demonstrated the potential of gaming as a tool for education and motivating players to explore new topics.
NextGen students rise to the challenge
Under the guidance of Creative Assembly, NextGen students were given a specific brief—to develop a game that highlights the importance of ocean sustainability and addresses the threats faced by our oceans. Ocean Generation, a charity chosen by CA employees, provided the vital environmental issue to be addressed.
Creative Assembly strongly believes in the power of gaming for education and philanthropy. This project, known as Ocean Hack, demonstrated the potential of gaming as a tool for education and motivating players to explore new topics.
Results and recognition
The students' dedication and talent shone through in their finished work. The groups produced highly accomplished games, with teams from each college being selected to present their work to an industry panel comprising representatives from Creative Assembly and Ocean Generation.
Helen West, CSR Lead at Creative Assembly, expressed her admiration for the students' accomplishments within the five-day timeframe.
“We have been incredibly impressed at the sheer level of talent and the standard of work achieved in just 5 days. Through our award-winning education outreach programme, The Legacy Project, our developers are able to share their expertise and support quality industry education across the UK - this virtual work experience has enabled us to extend that reach, supporting hundreds of college students with real industry experience.”
Check out some of the incredible student work with feedback from our industry panel below. Thank you to Creative Assembly and Ocean Generation for this incredible opportunity for NextGen students.
Pollution Patrol
from Uxbridge College
Pollution Patrol from Uxbridge College made a 2D endless runner style game with different levels and boss fights, all interspersed with mini-games highlighting the problems of ocean pollution and plastic waste. With an eye-catching retro style and upbeat soundtrack this game was a massive hit with our industry panel!
The team said:
“We wanted to make a level based game with different concepts, game play, and perspective of how pollution changes one local area (to keep story consistent ), showing how our choices change the environment, and the choices you make in one level are carried through and change the game play in other levels.”
Our industry panel said:
“I absolutely love the art style and the animation, it’s absolutely incredible! I want to play more, get to know the character and discover the whole universe you’ve created!”
Rob Fey, Senior Lead Engineer at Creative Assembly
Team Bloopers
from Westminster Kingsway College
Team Bloopers from Westminster Kingsway College created an untitled project. Their game is an interactive game based on decision making where you, the player can help clean up waste and take care of the ocean. The decisions you make affect both the visuals of the game and how it progresses.
The team said:
"We found that most of the plastic that’s created doesn’t get recycled and by 2050, plastic in the ocean will outweigh fish. We wanted our game to be true to life. We wanted the player to have a role in what happened to the environment."
Our industry panel said:
"Collaboration is a really tough thing to work out. The demo that you’ve put together is very, very impressive! Very impressive change in direction based on feedback. It’s a very good direction change. You have already succeeded in having an impact on one person with your game."
Rob Fey, Senior Lead Engineer at Creative Assembly
Team 10
from The Sheffield College
Rising Tides is a resource management card game from Team 10 at The Sheffield College where you play cards from your hand to act against rising sea levels. Fighting against world events that you must react to without letting the climate fall to ruin.
The team said:
"We took inspiration from Reigns and Underhand to design and create our game. We wanted to dedicate our final day to testing, balancing and refining the game. We went over our Minimum Viable Product and we listed a bunch of things we’d add if we were going to take the project any further.
Our industry panel said:
"I didn’t expect to have anyone make this kind of game, but I’m glad you did! I was hooked by the concept and this kind of setting is really interesting to use. Getting information to anyone is really tricky, the fact that you’ve come up with scenarios is a great way of getting people to learn about it!"
Matthew Hallsworth, Youth Engagement Coordinator at Ocean Generation
Team Squid
from Gateway College
Ocean Apocalypse, created by students at Gateway College is a fun first-person ocean cleaner game, where you, the player, take charge of a submarine and use it to collect ocean waste, catch fish that have been mutated by pollution before they can infect healthy fish, and make useful items out of what you collect.
The team described it as:
"Inspired by Plants vs Zombies but with ocean pollution! We wanted to showcase how pollution can affect ocean life, and promote recycling as a way of reducing waste.
Our industry panel said:
"I really like the modelling with the different style fishes, and the sound design when you move the submarine arms is really well done and satisfying, it’s really fun! There’s some really good game design here!”
Rob Fey, Senior Lead Engineer at Creative Assembly
Team Calamari
from Big Creative Education
Team Calamari from Big Creative Education created a colour matching, trash collection game with the aim of collecting and sorting rubbish to be recycled. Informing the players of the value and importance of recycling and taking care of our oceans.
Our industry panel said:
"At the beginning of the presentation I was concerned that too much time was spent on design, but I learned that my estimation was wrong, the team understood their technical expertise so it was the right thing for them to do. Great Job!"
Rob Fey, Senior Lead Engineer at Creative Assembly
Team Crystallium
from Barnet and Southgate College
Crystallium, created by students at Barnet and Southgate College is a side scrolling 2D ocean cleaner. Combining a beautiful hand drawn art style and pixel art graphics to create an informative, enjoyable gameplay experience, and a winning X Statement of "a few volunteers decide to do what they can to clean up the ocean floor."
The team said:
"Our game was inspired by Stardew Valley and Space invaders. It's an indie ocean game with a Mario inspired gameplay"
Our industry panel said:
"This is really interesting and perfect for our target audience. I love the story and the narrative. It's really positive."
Matthew Hallsworth, Youth Engagement Coordinator at Ocean Generation
Team Save the Turtles
from St Helens College
Renegade Recycler, created by Team Save the Turtles from St Helens College is an idle world builder game with the aim of teaching players about pollution, over fishing and how to take care of the planet.
The team said:
"We looked into issues to inform the game we made. We included facts on the loading screen to educate players about the issues that Ocean Generation focus on."
Our industry panel said:
"I was really impressed. The amount of research you did was a nice touch and the game itself looks fantastic! Really nice nods to sustainability. I really liked your style and reminded me of Stranded Deep. I’d love to play it!"
Matthew Hallsworth, Youth Engagement Coordinator at Ocean Generation
Choo Choo Games
from Barnsley College
Barnsley College’s student team, Choo Choo Games, created Trash Planet. You play as an Ocean Generation Wave Maker, saving the planet one fish at a time! Trash Planet has a unique and cutesy low poly art style that makes it stand out from the crowd.
The team said:
We based all of the levels on different issues about the ocean. The first level is about how humanity has taken over and doesn’t take care of the beaches. The second level is inspired by mass-fishing and how that affects eco-systems. The third level is about polar ice caps and how they’re affected by climate change. This is an experience to teach players about what’s going on in the world.
Our industry panel said:
"The art direction is very economical, very good! The assets look very professional. Boy do they look good! Shipwreck, wow! Fishing hut, wow! First level pipes, wow! Lighthouse, wow! You’re going from one strength to another. It’s not only that the assets all look gorgeous, the composition looked extremely professional. The cute style of it all goes right to my heart the level design is beautiful and the art style is timeless."
Rob Fey, Senior Lead Engineer at Creative Assembly
The Shoreline Saviours
from Doncaster College
The Shoreline Saviours from Doncaster College presented Trash is Trash. Oceanic creatures have been corrupted and polluted and a monster has been created from the pollution, you must contain and stop the monster. Collect materials dropped by the monster to recycle them and upgrade your ship ready for the next time!
Our industry panel said:
"I thought it was a creative concept that will help capture players but still shows important messages. I love the imagination and you did a lot of work. It was great to see it all come together in the gameplay. Well done!"
Brad Davidson, Head of Strategic Development at Ocean Generation
Team Vint Zealand
from Middlesbrough College
Middlesbrough College’s student team, Vint Zealand, created Flipper Patrol. A sideways scrolling platform game, you play as a fish who has become ill from living in a polluted ocean, you must use what is in the ocean to escape and collect other fish to rescue on your way.
The team said:
“You play as a ‘rag doll’ fish character who is desperately trying to escape a polluted ocean. Using a ‘rag doll’ main character means that the game mechanics are unpredictable, making it fun but a game that can be mastered with practise.”
Our industry panel said:
“I was so impressed, there’s so much in here, from raising awareness of the pollution problem to all of the game mechanics, and even accessibility features. I’m incredibly impressed by it!”
Rob Fey, Senior Lead Engineer at Creative Assembly
Team Ghosties
from Southwark College
Edge of the abyss, made by team Ghosties at Southwark College, is a platformer action adventure game set in a fictional future where players take on the role of a marine biologist on a mission to research the deep seas. The main objective of the game is to research all existing life that habits in the ocean such as fish, jellyfish and coral that can range from harmless creatures to violent predators.
Our industry panel said:
"It was great to see how much effort everyone put into all aspects of this project. I saw that you went into quite a lot of detail in terms of your research which helps the game stay grounded in science which is important when creating a game like this. The animations you created look amazing!"
Brad Davidson, Head of Strategic Development at Ocean Generation