The Client and Their Brief
The Haskins group operate five of the largest destination garden centres across the south of England. They came to us looking for a developer that could build a game for people to play during a stop at one of their cafes. The game needed to be short and entertaining, whilst adhering to their brand and ethos. The app needed to be published to both Android and iOS, and had to adhere to a very strict and limited budget. This aside, we were given relative freedom to suggest the most appropriate game to achieve their marketing goals.
What We Did
We built a game using the Construct2 game engine, with CocoonJS used to compile the game for signing and release across iOS and Android. We created the necessary artwork using Photoshop based on existing brand assets.
A Game Design to Suit Their Brand
Our first step was to design and suggest a range of appropriate game styles to fit their brand image and maintain the attention of a younger audience. As the logo for Haskins is a bumblebee, we thought it fitting to make this the main protagonist for the game. This also helped us to determine the type of game that we’d create how it would play. In terms of the art style, we took inspiration from the pastel colours used throughout the existing website to create a series of stylish game assets. These assets included the main character, obstacles, backgrounds and menus. We also implemented a regal sounding background track to add some ambience to the game.
Created an Experience Perfect for Kids
As the game was aimed towards a younger audience, Haskins opted for one of our simpler 2D game concepts. This concept required the player to navigate a bee through a garden whilst avoiding oncoming obstacles such as leaves, bugs and garden equipment. In order to avoid these obstacles, the player could move the bee up and down by simply holding or releasing a touch against the screen. The aim of the game was to avoid obstacles for as long as possible, with difficulty gradually increasing as oncoming obstacles approached at a faster rate. To add a level of re-playability the player would achieve a score based on their longest run. This score was visible from the main menu, allowing them to know the score to beat.
The Result
Haskins Buzzy Bee perfectly reflected the Haskins brand, both in terms of audio and visuals. Having been released across both Android and iOS, Buzzy Bee also went on to be the centrepiece for the Garden Gang section of the Haskins Garden Centres website, offering various garden based games and activities for children.
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