ARCADE - CHARACTER DESIGN CHALLENGE (2024) | Games for Change Student Challenge

CategoryPageHeader - Character Design Challenge

CORDELIA EZRI

Cordelia Ezri [Her forename means “jewel of the sea” and her surname means “help”] tends to act as a guide to assist people to take care of the ocean properly, navigate their way through the seas, and often leaves sticky notes filled with her complaints and suggestions to nearby farmers and beaches that they should clean up their act – her handwriting wasn’t too good.

Cordelia is twenty-nine years old and about 6’0” because of her tail being a bit longer than her legs, but in human form, she is about 5’9. She has a fiancé named Zahir Altruus who went missing and she’s trying to find him from the rope of the net he was caught in. Her scales are golden, contrasting the ocean color to distract fishers and pirates from going after the fish. She has a silent yet humble personality and would rarely attempt to brag about things like she would in her past while she’s also an impatient, overprotective, wary person. Cordelia is intelligent when it comes to the ocean and things on the surface that could potentially harm it. She also acts as a teacher towards fishes and tries to keep them away from fishing poles or nets just in case overfishing occurs again. Throughout the game, she starts off as a boss fight because she’s wary of the player being a part of the overfishing that was going on because of a misunderstanding from the player having her missing fiancé’s engagement ring. Eventually, she joins the party once things were cleared up and is the damage dealer of the party. She often uses her trident- which can transform into various things – to defend or attack for herself and others. Her powers are water based and she uses her golden scales or pearls to stun the enemy.

Student: Sahniya W

School: Barber Middle School

From: Acworth, Georgia, USA

AMARYLLIS: DESIGNING THE FUTURE

Amaryllis is a fashion designer who owns an influential clothing boutique. She’s also a firm believer in protecting our environment and spreading awareness about people’s effect on the environment. In her boutique, she sells sustainable clothing. Everything is either made of previously fitted fabric or unconventional materials, that are turned into exquisite dresses. She hopes that with her boutique more people will turn to sustainable clothing instead of fast fashion and truly enjoy their clothes for a long time, compared to easily worn out clothing that is thrown out quickly. She has a harsh exterior and can seem intimidating to strangers, but is really just passionate about what she believes in. Her hair was originally brown, but some of it has started turning red because she spent too much time out in the sun. When she’s not making new sustainable clothes, she’s always outside to try out new things and explore the world.

Amaryllis grew up in a world where she watched people throw away clothes after one use. When she asked why, they would always say it was because there was a new trend now, and that they had to keep up. But because of that, as she grew older, she noticed there were fewer parks and beaches, but more and more garbage dumps for all the clothes being disposed of. She wanted to make a change in her world and reverse all the damage created because of fast fashion. Her parents were incredibly supportive and helped her open her own boutique. She decided to start designing clothes that used the wasted clothes and remade them into something beautiful that can be timeless and worn for a long time. Her designs have inspired others to also start their own clothing stores, as well as buy sustainable clothing. Her role in the game is to teach the player about sustainable clothing, what it is, and how it creates an impact in helping our world, as well as reducing waste. She guides the player into making good decisions and developing a wardrobe that doesn’t leave a big impact on the environment.

Student: Avni C

From: Holly Springs, North Carolina, USA

MARIN

Marin is 16 years old, agender, and lives in a small seaside town. As a person they are very passionate about the things they believe in and are very creative. Because of this they enjoy wearing the brightest colors they can, and always have their hair dyed in some bright color. As a hobby, they do photography, both above and underwater, and so they always keep their camera on them.

In the world of Marin’s game, ocean spirits are a prevalent and common issue. Some time ago they were helpful and benign, however as the ocean was polluted and otherwise harmed, the spirits were corrupted through their connection to it into monstrous entities who seek revenge against the people who polluted and harmed the ocean. Marin came to the conclusion that if the ocean and beaches could be entirely cleaned up and restored, that the spirits would go back to normal. In their game, Marin acts as the protagonist and player character. The main part of the game would be Marin diving underwater to try and clean up, while simultaneously having to fight off the corrupted ocean spirits they were trying to save. Marin fights with their net, using it as a melee weapon to remove trash from the ocean spirits and temporarily send them off. I think that an important part of the game would be that it never ends, continuing on forever using procedurally generated dungeons. It would be a decision that shows that as hard as one person tries, they can’t fix the whole world by themselves. It takes a lot of effort from a lot of people, and everyone needs to contribute to make a difference. I have designed the character of Marin to show that even if you can’t fix everything, you should still do what you can. Even though one person can’t undo decades of pollution, their actions still make an impact, and may inspire others to do the same, and they should never give up.

Student: Kira H

From: Ypsilanti, Michigan, USA

TRAVIS SANDERSON

Travis Sanderson is a very creative boy, but he often keeps to himself and isn’t good at making friends. He has short brown hair, and normally wears the same boots, a white dirty T-shirt, and blue shorts. He grew up in the local orphanage in his town that had little money and technology. Many people think he looks very sad and lonely, which is mostly true. He was born with severe deformities that make him stand out from everyone else, leaving him very alone. It affects mostly his face and his immune system, making the outside air extremely dangerous to him. To avoid conversation he always keeps his gasmask on. His differences didn’t stop his love for engineering, he spends lots of his time studying and learning about the history of past engineers and scientists. He dreams of making technology that will change the world, that will make air breathable for him.

Travis Sanderson was born in 3446, 1,422 years into the future. He’s living in a time where there is no clean drinking water. There are 50% less animals roaming the Earth now than there were in the 2000s, according to his history books. Many animals and people are mutated, due to the extremely toxic living environments. It always feels like summer outside, they sky is always a dirty gray, and rain is extremely toxic and makes you severely sick. When humanity must face the consequences of their actions, they run away. The Earth is destroyed beyond repair, so the world’s plan is PROJECT MARS. Every person on Earth is urged to start packing, while country by country will be making their journey to Mars, the most habitable planet, with the most recent technology of course. But people who are unfortunately struggling with money can’t pay the fee to get on to these ships. Travis will spend the rest of his life trying to survive the harsh conditions. Throughout his journey, he finds the communities of people who were left behind, making the most of what they have. These people work find ways to make things ecofriendly and reverse the things people destroyed. People help each other, nobody is left behind. Travis learns that he is extremely talented in the engineering field and spends lots of his time making technology and tools to help him in this corrupt world. His most successful inventions are technology that can clean the air and that can make biodegradable resources from recycled trash. He advances to technology never thought of before and makes a large impact on the Earth. He will create blueprints of inventions and will use recycled material to help make the world greener and brighter.

Student: Angelie C

School: Barber Middle School

From: Acworth, Georgia, USA

DAHLIA

Dahlia is a kind soul who lives in the forest and tends to the creatures of it. She attracts all sorts of creatures very often using her jasmine flower-like scent. She is a red panda, the same size as one if only slightly bigger. She has a four-leaf clover imprinted on her forehead and the Symbol of Gaia, the Greek goddess of Earth, on the back of her head. She dresses in simple ancient clothing with three layers of clothing. The first layer is tight black shorts and shirt. The second layer is a peplos with sleeves to cover her arms and the ends separated for better movement. The last layer is a hood that reaches from her neck to elbow and accessories. Dahlia loves the creatures of the forests and acts like a cheerful but mature child with them. However, when facing humans, she gives off an intimidating demeanor. At times with Gaia, she shows a calm and blank personality and talks with quick, precise responses. She loves Gaia and believes that to be a loyal pet, she must act with confidence around Gaia and show the rest that although she may act kind, she can fend off for herself when necessary. The only other times she acts like she does with Gaia are with humans and when she is in danger. The only exception to that is the user, she will act playful but helpful with her.

Dahlia was once a regular red panda like any other. She was playing with her pack in the trees like usual when one of her pack members, her sister, started overheating due to the climate. She was tasked to look for something to cool her sister. When she arrived, she saw someone chopping the branches of a tree. They used an axe at first but soon changed it to an odd-looking scythe. She hid in the crevices of a cave with a view able to see everything. While she hid, the person sliced the tree that the others were in. They all fell and were crushed by the tree or fell with a splat. The person started chopping the tree to collect when a bright light appeared. A lady with hair-like leaves and the most beautiful horns on her head subtly landed on the ground. It was the goddess Gaia. She explained that if the man cut any more trees, it would affect the climate and cause the world to overheat and die; she did not want that to happen. As the man scurried away, she decomposed the tree and grew another tree in the span of seconds. She caught sight of Dahlia and lured her out of the crevice. She gave Dahlia two options, to continue living until the Earth burns and she dies or to be her loyal pet and help bring an end to the severe change in climate. Dahlia said yes, of course, and was given a mark on the back of her head to show that she was Gaia’s pet. Gaia gave her the scythe the person used as a tool and lent her a bit of power that was engraved on her forehead as a four-leaf clover. Her role in the game is to explain how climate change is harming the environment and guide the user around the forest. She will lend the user some powers to help end climate change and be like a sidekick for the user whenever they need help. She will also act as a messenger of God and a friend.

Student: Alba A

School: Barber Middle School

From: Acworth, Georgia, USA

JENNY FOLEY

Jenny is an adventurous pirate who seeks to preserve her home by hunting for trash in the ocean and beaches. She has a desire to learn, is independent, and is passionate about the ocean. Jenny loves exploring marine life and is open-minded about new environments. Her attraction to the ocean as a child allowed her to have an active mind and body, and she becomes very sociable when discussing the oceans. Due to her bold attitude, she can sometimes act recklessly, disregarding her safety to explore new locations. She has a bright personality and lights up the room with her playful nature. Jenny is her own leader, and due to being raised in a family of pirates, she was taught to be resourceful with her surroundings. Her intelligence has allowed her to navigate dangerous challenges and the high seas. Her self-dependence has provided her the confidence to embark alone on her lifelong journey to save the ocean. Jenny has always loved the ocean, especially due to her pirate upbringing. She can be very protective of her marine friends and will candidly call out anyone who neglects their responsibility to clean up after themselves. When she first learned about ocean pollution, she became angry at the situation, wondering why anyone would want to harm an ecosystem of wonders. However, she used her temper to fuel her quest — to educate the public on ocean pollution and clean up contaminated beaches. In her travel pack, she has a magical compass to navigate the seas with the ability to locate polluted areas, an infinite reusable trash bag and safety gloves to handle litter, and a small floatable octopus as a travel buddy.

Jenny’s parental background remains unknown; she was found alone on the shore of a beach by a pirate crew who raised her. Over time, she learned how to steer the ship with wind magic, call upon the ancient beasts below for guidance, and manipulate the mists to conceal the ship from enemies. She loved and appreciated her home — a place inhabited by unique creatures in an underwater universe, largely unexplored by humans. While landing on an inhabited beach, she encountered a sick octopus on the shoreline who had ingested human-produced chemicals. While taking the creature under her care, she found out that the small octopus possessed magical abilities to float and survive on land, and she happily named the little creature Plink. When inquiring about why the creature was ill, she learned about the impacts of human pollution on marine life and habitats. Jenny, angered at the current global situation, vowed to create a space where all creatures could live freely. She spent her years up until adulthood learning about the impact of humans on ocean life and how to properly teach others about this issue. After gaining enough information on ocean conservation, she bid farewell to her pirate family and ventured out into the world, alongside her travel companion, Plink. Her mission is to clean up ocean pollution and to educate any young adventurers she encounters on the importance of keeping our beaches clean. You can find Jenny when venturing out into polluted oceans or beaches. She gives travelers tips on ocean conservation and how to reduce waste (such as by consuming sustainable seafood and using less water). She has a mini shop created out of discarded goods in which you can purchase items (such as mini robot buddies, mosaic art, and jewelry) to keep them out of our seas. You can also accept a quest to help her clean up beaches. Through this game, you receive a simulated experience of the dire conditions of some beaches, discover about the various animals affected by ocean contamination, and learn why sustainability matters. At the end of the quest, you will gain the knowledge to understand the impact of pollution on our oceans and sea creatures, and ways to maintain our beaches for future generations to enjoy.

Student: Eva T

From: San Diego, California, USA

DOTTY

Dotty is a nonbinary, spotted squid who is a janitor of the ocean. Dotty is slightly shy but is brave. Their vivid memory of pollution motivates them to clean the ocean, bringing a fiery spirit to the OCCA (Ocean Creatures’ Cleaning Association). Dotty’s hair consists of squid tentacles with glow-in-the-dark rings, and their eyes glow! Their eyes have a range of looks, as the eye changes based on their emotions. Dotty carries a dragon-bot vacuum, a net, and light-up headphones while on expeditions. Dotty is an active member of the OCCA, which consists of around 40 agents and many other members! Dotty is ranked 8th among thousands of cleaners, showing their passion for ocean cleanliness. Dotty’s species hasn’t been fully identified, but scientists found both human and squid cells in Dotty’s samples. They can not change into a full human but can transform into complete squid when especially motivated. The transformation is tricky for Dotty to control since the human cells prevent it. Either way, Dotty doesn’t seem to mind as most of their friends are in the same boat. Dotty uses another language known as Bubbliciti (BUH-blee-si-tee). Bubbliciti is a visual language, consisting of bubbles for words and sounds for tone indication. Dotty uses a BSA (Bubbliciti Speech Assistant) when above water. The BSA is a helmet filled with water to allow Bubbliciti users to communicate with other Bubbliciti users. Dotty finds it helpful but restrictive, as there isn’t enough room in the helmet to make a full sentence. They can understand English, but can’t speak it due to the lack of vocal cords.

Young Dotty was traversing the ocean floor when they got tangled in a net, but was too frail to escape. Despite many cries for help, there were no signs of help. A member of the Ocean Creatures’ Cleaning Association had found young Dotty tangled up and quickly freed them. That day inspired Dotty to help clean the ocean for young creatures to play safely. Dotty is a playable agent in this game where the waters are heavily polluted. Dotty has a default attack, 2 abilities, and an ultimate. Their default attack is “Claw Swipe”. When activated, Dotty will quickly attack with its clawed arms, damaging the bots in the hitbox. Any trash in the hit box is carried and released when “Claw Swipe” is pressed again. If Dotty is carrying trash and “Claw Swipe” is used near Dragon Bot, Dragon Bot consumes it, storing the trash in the Robot Container. Dotty’s first ability is “Claw Whirlpool”. When activated, Dotty will quickly swirl, propelling them and dealing damage to bots in the hitbox. Dotty’s second ability is “A Dragon’s Feast”. When activated, the Dragon Bot pulls all trash within a trapezoid hit box to it. When the trash is close enough to the vacuum, the trash is sucked into the vacuum. Their ultimate is called “Squid Frenzy”. When activated, Dotty transforms into a squid and starts spinning. Any trash in front of Dotty is quickly pulled into their tentacles. After 10 seconds of spinning, Dotty transforms back into normal form, then quickly puts all trash into Dragon Bot. Dotty has a major role in the storyline of the game. At the beginning of the game, players meet Dotty and two other members of the Ocean Creatures’ Cleaning Association. The player completes the tutorial with Dotty, and then Dotty isn’t seen again until the next major part including the OCCA. Dotty often encourages the player to continue cleaning the ocean when talking.

Student: Samantha Li

From: Sylvania, Ohio, USA

NAIA

Naia is an adventurous, cheerful, scientist and fashion enthusiast, living on a small island to the west of the Player’s hometown. She currently works as a researcher, looking to make biodegradable textiles out of materials in her local area, after seeing the impacts of fast fashion and pollution in her town first-hand. Whether you need someone to cheer you up, someone to give you fashion or life advice, or to join you on a new adventure, Naia is the person to call! When Naia isn’t crammed and doing calculations in her lab, she can be found out in the sea, scuba-diving and collecting samples of seaweed to further her research, sitting around at her favourite ice cream shop after going thrifting with her friends, or flying out to attend fashion shows for inspiration on furthering her own research. She is also working towards creating her own clothing brand to help her town’s economy recover from the impacts of climate change, and can also be found taking business calls, testing out products, and designing new clothes. Unfortunately, Naia’s optimism and spontaneity does come with drawbacks as well. Her eagerness to get things done and her constant drive to keep on going no matter what can quickly lead to burnout. In terms of doing research, although Naia’s persistent attitude is vital in keeping up morale and not giving up, it can also lead her into spiraling and fixiating on small details, preventing her from seeing the bigger picture, or considering the problem from a different perspective. Naia’s risk-taking attitude can also unfortunately lead to some big losses, which have led to devastating consequences in the past.

Naia lives on an island surrounded by the sea. Unfortunately, the shores she lives next to, which were once pristine and bursting with life, are now ridden with mountains of rubbish, including plastic bottles, take-out containers, and tons of clothing resulting from fast fashion, to Naia’s dismay. This causes a lack of tourism, and makes fishing more difficult, leading to an economic crisis in her town. Tons of different solutions were tried in order to reduce the pollution, however, none of them worked. No matter how many unworn sandals or scarves, or shirts or socks were picked up, three more would appear in its place. It is at this time in which Naia had realized she needed to instead target the root of this problem in order to restore her town to its former glory – the fashion industry itself. Much more trial and error and countless nights of brainstorming different eco-friendly solutions to the clothing crisis were thought of, however, almost all of these ideas required extremely expensive equipment, materials that were impossible to find on the island, or were temporary solutions. It wasn’t until after one day while scuba-diving, did Naia finally think of using seaweed, which was capable of being dried and turned into a leather-substitute, turned into plastic, or weaved into cloth using it’s fibers. In addition to using reusable materials, this seaweed-made fabric would be biodegradable, and safe for any sea creatures to eat, preventing any other deaths resulting from choking on plastic. Using her science-education, Naia begins researching different energy-efficient and eco-friendly ways of making more durable seaweed fabric that is just as good as any other fabric that you could buy from the store, using locally-grown seaweed, to provide jobs lost from the lack of tourism and for fishers unable to support themselves from the lack of wildlife. In game, Naia is an NPC living on the island, who asks the player for help and provides side quests of collecting seaweed, in exchange for mystery potions from her lab, which can be used to increase the durability of or repair damaged clothing. On rarer occasions, Naia may also gift you test-samples of her cloth (with the durability of the cloth increasing depending on how much seaweed you have given her), or pieces of metal scraps she has found underwater, which can be exchanged for money in the market. Eventually, if you give her enough seaweed, she will complete her research, and you will be given 1000 coins for your assistance, as well as the ability to purchase her seaweed-made cloth from the market. After this stage, Naia will no longer accept any seaweed. Naia also appears in the game later on as a judge, while you are presenting your designs on the runaway. If you use her fabric as a part of the design, or include any other materials from her home island (shiny shells, recycled metal, cloth scraps, etc.) her score for you will automatically increase by 10.

Student: Tina N

From: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

MIRA MORGAN (THE MARINE SPECIALIST)

Mira Morgan is one of the 9 members of the Dyanthus Marine Security. At work, she is known as Luminaria, one of the (algae faction) agents in the national organization. She is bubbly, energetic, curious, and determined to not leave any stone unturned under her gaze. She loves randomly spilling facts about sea organisms when she finds the perfect opportunity. The Welsh-American agent likes to be clean, just like her squad mates. with her dedication to sanitation, the regions of the Indigo and Magenta seas tend to start looking clearer and well-filtered with her contribution at the end of the month. She is a very good swimmer, making her capable of backflip or sometimes leap like a dolphin when emerging out of the water.

Mira lives in a nation that just got out of dystopia, Dyanthus, where humans mysteriously get turned into monsters(or pass away) that terrorize every region when coming into contact with a deadly virus (Pandera) until the people decide to come together and stand up to protect their homeland. To protect from the virus, they started building air filtering forcefields and wearing gas masks from breathing it. Even after the war had ended, monsters were still roaming around the sea region, tormenting the fish and keeping temperatures rising to the point it harmed coral reefs and other marine ecosystems. Mira will often be addressed as Luminaria by peers, she is not exactly a human yet once was in her past life which is left unknown. She is more like a humanized form of algae, the one she has a codename after, yet still has her human traits such as emotions and behavior. Luminaria’s job is to roam around the surface of beach coasts and underwater to make sure the regions are clear from anything that harms the ocean and its inhabitants. While cleaning the coasts and saving living organisms from debris and garbage waste, she also takes pictures of every sea organism through her special camera, from animals to photosynthetic organisms, to learn about each of them as she protects them from possible extinction. She uses a vacuum with multiple containers to pick up recyclables from both the surface and underwater. The Swiss knife is often used to help release animals from cage traps, ropes, plastic waste… and other kinds of questionable obstacles the more organisms are being trapped in. The knife can even be effective in opening secret doors from capsules or chests. To neutralize monsters, Mira uses her plant powers that come out of her fingers, summoning a weapon that resembles water before splashing them with green slime(it’s bio-friendly and it acts like good bacteria that fights bad bacteria)

Student: Cindy L

School: John Dewey High School

From: Brooklyn, New York, USA

JASMINE GREENE

Name: Jasmine Greene
Age: 21
Education: College student
Work Experience: Ex garbage worker
Personality: Extroverted activist who enjoys making the world a better place
Traits: persistent, intelligent, focused, cooperative, generous, adventurous, determined

Jasmine is a student at the college for eco-sciences in her junior year. She had just left her old job as a garbage collector after one of her classes had talked about how much the world has changed from pollution and all the garbage that the average human being pumps out. Her current class had caused her some strong feelings about the world and has decided to do something about all these gasses and pollution that’s harming the world Jasmines role in the game is the player. She will be controlled by the User and given choices of good and evil. She will start of with an item called the “purifier” its a tool that almost resembles a leaf blower, it will help purify the air in High Air Polluted areas in the game, secondary item she has is her “suction compactor” which is a large handheld vacuum with a wide nozzle that’s connected to a compacting backpack that expels “fertilizer cubes” that will allow her to plant trees and other plants in areas that have been taken over by garbage. An item that she will pick up in the game after completing the first mission is called the: “ice age” an item that attaches to the “purifier” that allows her to gradually frost areas that are high in temperatures that are deemed “too hot” but it also has a frost bite affect that could be dangerous.

Student: Raquel C

School: Livonia Career and Technical Center

From: Livonia, Michigan, USA