My Little Pony x Roblox Game, UX, UI Design

My Little Pony Maretime Bay In Roblox

Overview

This was the second project I was a part of at Media.Monks. eOne Approached Media.Monks and wanted to bring My Little Pony into the Metaverse. As well as promotion for their new My Little Pony series coming to Netflix. Our goal was to bring My Little Pony & Maretime Bay into the Metaverse as well as give player the ability to spend a day with the Mane 5!.

My Role

Game Test/Creative Input

Research & Adapt Game To Source Material

Ideate, Wireframe & Design The Forest/Meadow

Deck Design

Timeframe: 2 Months

Project Goal

Our goal was to bring the My Little Pony Mane 5 to Roblox/Metaverse. As well as give users a unique experience unlike most Roblox Experiences. In our experience we give users the ability to become their own customized pony! As well as free official UGC! There are 5 mini games, one for each character. As well as a faithful adaptation of Maretime Bay (The setting in the series).

Bigger Role Meadow Design

My first project at MediaMonks was with Duolingo’s Duo-Jam, where I was initially assigned with simple tasks such as game testing and bug spotting. However, with time and experience, I was entrusted with much more responsibility. I was given the task to design and create the meadow for a game with the character Hitch. The game is a fun-filled hide & seek adventure where 3-30 critters hide in the forest and users have to find them. This project was a huge opportunity for me, and I took it very seriously. I spent a considerable amount of time studying the source material and ideating on the concept, going through several iterations of wireframes and design ideas:

This project has been submitted to Eventex Awards 2023 !

I created three versions of the meadow. I wanted something simple yet vast and different for user. It was such an honor to have the ability to design and have full creative control of making this meadow! The meadow takes up 40-50% of the world! After all these version this is what we came up with:

Final Version

Game Demographic, Changes, & Solutions

In the meadow game, players interact with a character named Hitch, whose objective is to play hide and seek with the critters, as mentioned earlier. The game consists of three rounds, with the first one having ten critters, the second one having twenty, and the third having thirty. Our target audience is five-year-old girls who we discovered found the game challenging during play testing. This made us feel uncertain about the direction we were taking and prompted us to rethink our approach.

Upon reflection, I remembered a similar game from my childhood, Sonic Adventure XD, which was about Sonic navigating an open world and completing stages. What made it engaging was that every time a stage was completed, a door or gate would open, leading to new challenges. We applied this concept to our game, starting with a smaller space in stage one, making it easy and rewarding for players to find the ten critters. Then, we opened up a new section of the forest in stage two, requiring players to find twenty critters while using the same space as stage one. To keep it interesting, we randomized the spawn areas to prevent predictability.

I presented this idea to my team in a pitch deck, and they were thrilled with it. This approach was implemented in two out of the five games, which was a significant accomplishment for me as a new hired Creative Dev.

After speaking to our client, they wanted a bit of a simple demo stage, which we provided so now set up was:

Zone 1: 3 Critters
Zone 2: 5 Critters
Zone 3: 10 Critters
Zone 4: 20 Critters
Zone 5: 30 Critters

This is the idea for barriers to section off each zone.

Designing UI

We needed UI responses that felt on brand, so we needed to watch a lot of the show, and think deeply on what the mane fives response would be:

As mentioned I was given complete creative control over the forest I wanted me make it more unique and lived in. I really want the users to come to this world and fall in love with the world.

This is the full amount of the world I designed about 40%

Take Homes & Growth! / Metrics

I'm thrilled to announce that the project is complete! Looking back at my journey, I started as a Creative Dev and now I've been hired as a UX/UI Designer. The transition from Duolingo to MLP was a huge leap, and I've learned a ton from MLP, especially about teamwork. My team consists of a Creative Director, Producer, and Freelance Game Developer/Designer, along with an internal team of animators and 3D artists. Throughout this project, I've gained the confidence to ask questions, make suggestions, and handle the disappointment of having some ideas rejected. As a result, I feel closer to my team and enjoy communicating with them every day.

It was fascinating to witness the entire process unfold, from pitching the idea of sectioning off the meadow to designing the landscape and UI pop-up windows. In total, I designed 50% of the world, including the meadow and 75% of the landscaping. It was a challenge to ensure that everything was consistent with the brand and made sense for our target demographic of five-year-old girls. We had to work closely together, given the tight timeline from starting in July to launching in September.

Working with Hasbro was a unique experience because they have some of the most classic American IP. I learned that we had to take into account good messaging for children, which sometimes meant making adjustments based on client feedback. For instance, we received notes about a character on skates without a helmet, and we had to ensure that all characters wore knee pads and protective gear. It was a fun experience to think about how to make the game safe and entertaining. Overall, I'm grateful for this experience, and I love having to consider all these factors when designing for a unique demographic like this.

Metrics

- Smashed client exceptions, weekend projections were 350K visits, we hit 1 Million within 24 hours. Currently the event has 7M+ visits, 4M impressions, and successfully promoted Netflix show which stayed at number 1 for over one week.

World Design & Input

As the weeks went on I was given more and more creative control over the world. I was put in charge of the forest/meadow and all the landscaping of the world. I was told to keep everything canon, so I went through all the available My Little Pony content and made note of everything along with my team and designed the world as faithful as possible to the show. I designed and created 75% of the world which was an honor and pleasure for me. Everything in this screenshot that is screen is from me.

The more I attend meeting with my team the more questions and input I provide. For example clients feedback was that some of the Ponies should be more spread out on the map. I pitched to our team to put one pony at the total west end of the world having the player explore and get rewarded for exploring. Now that is what we are moving with. Which I am so proud to have said that was my idea wether big or small. Even as a new hire I feel valued during our meetings if my idea is good or bad I am learning so much and thats all I could really ask for :) .

This is the final version of the Meadow I am extremely proud of where this is. Words can not express how amazing this is to me. This has taken so many times and iterations and versions but I am able to completely own this work and its a blessing.