Locust Plague

This Unity game simulates cyber violence incidents, allowing players to experience firsthand the emotions of the victims. Played in first-person view, the game aims to raise awareness about cyberbullying and encourage proactive prevention efforts.

Role

Design Research
UX Design
Visual Design
Game Design
Game Development

Duration

1 Month

Explore Final Delivery

Tools

Unity
C#
Rhino 3D
Figma

01. Ideation

Under the influence of the COVID-19, the proportion of people's online social networking has become larger, cyberbullying are also growing with it. However, this issue has not been reasonably and effectively controlled until today, and a number of people even don’t think it is serious, which is terrible.

I used to describe cyberbullying as locust plague, which also inspired me the imagery of cyberbullying in this project. They are similar in pattern & status quo - every individual among them seem inconspicuous and non-threatening, yet the impact of the group as a whole is enormous.

02. Steps

Storyline & Interaction designing

In the first scene, players experience a serene network environment and relaxed atmosphere. However, upon encountering the abuser's remarks and entering the second scene, they face relentless cyberbullying, leading to a sense of terror. Throughout each scene, sound, atmosphere, and environment dynamically adjust to the player's actions.

The five key scenes illustrating player interaction and scene changes are:

Cyber world entry
Locust plague emergence
Encircled by locust plague
Manifestation of Internet violence remarks
Post-cyberbullying world.

4-Manifestation of Internet
violence remarks

Model making

I built a model of 3 scenes to express the process during cyberbullying. Some of the models are download from the open-resource model libraries, and I re-edited them to make the whole scene. I focused on simulating different feelings & atmosphere during different period of time, they are: ’before the incidents‘ , ’locust attack‘ and ‘after the incidents‘.

Coding #C

This project shall be played in a first-person view. For each different plot, I changed the material and lighting of the scene through coding to create better atmosphere. In addition, I wrote scripts to trigger new moving pattern of locusts to make them either follow the ‘BOID‘ mode or surrounding mode.

03. Final Delivery

Plot 1. Before the incidents

It is the first scene that player going through. Player enter this social cyber world from the real world. The atmosphere here is novel and relaxing.

I combined lots of organic forms in nature with cyberpunk style, and borrowed some classic social platforms to express the concept of this space - I hope the "ecology" of the cyber world is lovely and dynamic, just like nature it is. At the same time, this will also be in contrast to the cyber world after the plague of locusts.

Plot 2. Locust attack

After the player interacted with the buoy to view the new notifications, the locust plague representing the cyberbullying suddenly appear and attack. I made the swarm massive and added people's malicious whispers to create a sense of oppression. They attack in groups, like the perpetrators of cyberbullying.

I made the shape of the locust into a cone with a suitable size, which I think can better express its sharp and hurtful characteristics of cyberbullying. The reasonable size makes locusts look innocuous from a distance, but terrifying and razor-sharp when they attack player up close. Just like a lot of bystanders of cyberbullying think it's no big deal, while the victims are about to suffocate.

Plot 3. After the incidents

At last, what player sees is the cyber world after the victims were attacked by the cyberbullying. The originally brilliant and vibrant online world was devoured by the locust plague and was only desolate. There is only depression and fear left, and the victims fall into the abyss of negative emotions.

Game Showcase