Here is Team Mischievous' entry for the March 2021 Ukie Student's Mobo Jam for WaterAid!

"Our game, “The Juniper and the Drought” has been designed with the theme, water, at its core. Based on our research into the water crisis, we found out that women and children around the world spend approximately 200 million hours collecting water every day. We knew that this was something we wanted to start a discussion about, but spent some time trying to decide how to approach this topic with sensitivity and to give our game meaning. We decided to take a symbolic approach and tackle the theme with visual and narrative parallels. All the art, music and gameplay were designed with this purpose in mind.

The character of the game is based on a juniper berry, a fruit that grows in hot, arid areas. We aimed to string connections to the most affected locations throughout our game. The reason we chose to base it on plants rather than real people was to make the game approachable to everyone. Furthermore, to make the game enjoyable, it seemed inappropriate to use the stories of real people’s struggles in a game directly. We wanted this to be a story which teaches a moral, which could be understood by anyone, from all backgrounds and ages. We implemented narrative elements to try and emphasise this message, by opening the game from the perspective of characters who live with excess water, to allow players to view this story through a context more familiar to their own, as an entry point.

The overall aim of the game is to reach home with as much water as possible, though there are also opportunities to help others along the way, by sharing your water. This is incentivised through a collectable: water pumps. These can often only be obtained through sharing water with others. If the player collects them all, they get a special ending where a water pump is built in their village, to represent how WaterAid can help create a long-term solution for people, as it provides so much for them.

Overall, this game aims to communicate that while this is fiction, it represents a very real struggle that millions of people must go through daily, to encourage them to help fix this problem and save lives. Due the time constraints, certain aspects are not fully polished, but we think the outcome as it is currently, communicates the message and theme well!

We ended the game with links to the related charities, as we hope this game can encourage people to help this cause, as it is one close to our hearts." 

- Charlotte Beale

Credits:

Charlotte Beale - Concept Art/Music/UI/Animation 

https://twitter.com/CharlotteLBeal3

https://cbeale.artstation.com/

Ben Tyreman - Concept Art/Social Media/UI/Level Design

https://twitter.com/TyremanBen

https://www.artstation.com/benjamin_tyreman

Jordan Eady - 3D Artist/Lighting

https://twitter.com/JordanEady_

https://www.artstation.com/jordan-eady

Conor Cliffe - 3D Artist/Shaders

https://twitter.com/ConorCliffe

https://www.artstation.com/conorcliffe

Beth Murcott - Animation Consultant

https://twitter.com/bethmurc_art

https://www.instagram.com/bethmurc.art/

Charlie Clark - Developer

https://twitter.com/CharlieClarkDev

Show your support for WaterAid and create a better world for all of us!

https://www.wateraid.org/uk/

Keep up to date with more projects from Team Mischievous:

https://twitter.com/PlayMischievous

Sidenote: The game can be a little temperamental and crash unexpectedly. If this happens, just try launching the game again or redownloading and that should hopefully sort any issues!