Challenge Summary
Welcome to SunShot – Map My Solar – Powerland Mobile Game Design Challenge!
Sungiver is a startup seeking to crowdfund solar farms for charity. Donations are used to build community solar farms where profits are directed to charities that donors pick.
Powerland is a mobile game aimed at increasing awareness and understanding of our energy systems and in particularly renewable energy, and encourage player participation in real world solar projects. Powerland is targeted at regular smartphone users who may or may not be already familiar with energy systems or solar but are interested in playing a social building game similar to the popular SimCity/Farmville/Hay Day. The game is designed to be fun and also educate the player about basic energy concepts/technology and to provide incentive to contribute to real world projects (Sungiver charity solar farm).
Round 1
Submit your design for a Checkpoint feedback:
1. App Icon.
2. Splash Screen.
3. Game (Map) Page.
4. Information Page.
5. Shop Main Page.
6. Shop Powerplant Page.
7. Shop Tech Page.
- If you have time - please provide us with a click map for your design.
- Readme.jpg : Provide notes about your submission.
- Make sure all pages have correct flow! Use correct file numbering. (00, 01, 02, 03).
Round 2
Final Design plus any Checkpoint feedback:
1. App Icon.
2. Splash Screen.
3. Game (Map) Page.
4. Information Page.
5. Shop Main Page.
6. Shop Powerplant Page.
7. Shop Tech Page.
8. Shop City Page.
9. Shop Donate Page.
10. Friends Page.
11. Game (Map) Page – Third Person View.
12. Ranking (Hall of Fame) Page.
- If you have time - please provide us with a click map for your design.
- Readme.jpg : Provide notes about your submission.
- Make sure all pages have correct flow! Use correct file numbering. (00, 01, 02, 03).
Challenge Description:
The goal of this challenge is to design the screens for our Powerland game, you are provided with a PDF that describes the screens and requirements.
We are looking for the [topcoder] design Community to help us with planning our new "user experience" (UX).
Supporting Documents:
- Screens Flow & Requirements (Powerland-detail.pdf).
Design Considerations:
- The page layout should be intuitive and uncluttered.
- The graphics/cartoons should be modern and catchy
- The designs should be readily scalable to different screen size and aspect ratios.
- Solar is a key theme for the overall design. The theme of the pages and graphics should be consistent.
Screen Sizes:
- Mobile Resolution: Design for iPhone 6 Retina Display 750px x 1334px.
Make sure you create graphic in 'shape' format, so when we resize graphics will still look sharp! It will be great if you can provide the landscape version.
Required Screens:
Please refer to Powerland-detail.pdf before you start designing your solution.
1. App Icon:
- Please refer Page 2.
- We need an app icon graphic and text for Powerland.
- Sizes 120x120, 180×180, 1024×1024.
- Show something that conveys the idea clearly and simply as an app icon.
2. Splash Screen:
- Please refer Page 2.
- We need a background image for front page, please design one that matches the game theme and don’t use a stock photo for this purpose.
- Place a logo text. (Powerland)
- Loading status bar. Remains while game is loading.
- Should be consistent in appearance and use for both an icon and as a logo.
3. Game (Map) Page:
- Please refer Page 3.
- A Welcome Popup that fills the screen, displaying scrollable text on the basic gameplay (Buy cities. Buy powerplants to power the cities to level up. Upgrade technologies to increase power).
- A grid (8x6 or 8x5) of boxes that fill up the top, left and right sides of the screen.
icons in the boxes that represent:
- Cities of different “levels” (potentially using different colors).
- Powerplants of different types:
-- Solar.
-- Wind.
-- Hydro.
-- Coal.
-- Gas.
-- Nuclear.
- Clicking on an “empty box” opens popup: SHOP. Click leads to SHOP page:
-- Item purchased at SHOP will be placed into the empty box.
- Clicking on a “city icon” opens popup: “City Lv #: $#”. Click on UPGRADE decrease $, increases City “level”, and increments total score (bottom icon).
- Clicking on a “powerplant icon” opens popup:
-- Buy Fuel (Cost). Available only for Coal/Gas/Nuclear. Click each day to power up.
-- Scrap: $#. Clicking decreases $ and converts the box into an empty box.
- A toolbar at the bottom of the page with icons:
-- Information: click leads to information page.
-- Hall of Fame: click leads to ranking page.
-- Friends: click leads to friends page.
-- Total “level/score”, which is the sum of the levels of powered cities on the map.
-- Total $. Displays total $ available. Click leads to the shop page.
4. Information Page:
- Please refer Page 4.
- We need an Infographic description of gameplay and energy technologies.
- Icons. Once clicked, opens pop-up window (that fills most of the screen) with scrollable text that describes the object:
-- Cities. (See the text provided in PDF)
-- Solar.
-- Wind.
-- Hydro.
-- Coal.
-- Gas.
-- ���Nuclear.
-- Energy Storage.
-- ���Carbon Sequestration.
-- Friends.
- A back arrow icon. Once clicked returns to the previous page. (same function on every page).
5. Shop Main Page:
- Please refer Page 5.
- 4 Tiles representing purchase categories. Click leads to the separate pages:
-- Power Plant.
-- Tech.
-- City.
-- Donate.
- Bottom Displays $ available for purchase.
6. Shop Powerplant Page:
- Please refer Page 6.
- Clickable icons representing the power plants:
-- Solar.
-- Wind.
-- Hydro.
-- Coal.
-- Gas.
-- Nuclear.
- Click opens popup:
-- Short Description.
-- Level/Capacity. CapEx. Fuel. Penalty (environmental).
-- Buy Button. Click returns to the Main Game Page. Places icon over pre-selected empty box.
7. Shop Tech Page:
- Please refer Page 7.
- Clickable Icons representing the Techs:
-- Carbon Sequestration (reduces penalty for ���coal/gas powerplants).
-- Energy Storage (increases power output of solar/wind powerplants).
- Click opens popup:
-- Short Description.
-- Benefit/Cost box.���
-- Buy button. Clicking returns to the Game page.
8. Shop City Page:
- Please refer Page 8.
- Clickable Icons representing the different leveled cities for purchase.
- Click opens popup:
-- Benefit/Cost box.
-- Buy button. Clicking returns to the Game page and places city over pre-selected empty box.
9. Shop Donate Page:
- Please refer Page 9.
- Short description of the impact of donation:
-- Help build Sungiver community solar farm.
-- Obtains a special Sungiver solar farm for user’s Powerland (at current tech level). The icon will differ from a typical solar plant. (e.g. shiny).
- Donate:
-- Enables in-game purchase.
10. Friends Page:
- Please refer Page 10.
- A search bar for other users:
-- Drop-down bar matching usernames.
- One block listing the confirmed friends.
- One block listing friend requests.
- Clicking on a username leads to the other user’s Game Page.
- Each user/friend is represented by a username, their score, and possibly a badge: gold/silver/bronze star for >90, 50 and 30% renewables (solar + wind).
- If two users add each other as friends:
-- Both receive 10% $ bonus from each other’s daily income.
-- OPTIONAL: Shared technology: Each is allowed to purchase powerplant on the other user’s Map at “n” times the normal cost (even if the user has not reached the tech level to purchase it herself), where “n” is the difference in the tech levels between the users.
11. Game (Map) Page – Third Person View:
- Please refer Page 11.
- Same layout as the Game Page for the user, except clicking will lead to different results:
-- Clicking on an “empty box” does nothing.
-- Clicking on a “city box” opens popup: “City ���Lv #”.
-- Clicking on “powerplant box” opens popup: “Powerplant Lv #”.
- A toolbar at the bottom of the page with icons:
-- “Go back arrow” to return to previous page.
-- “Plus arrow” for adding friends.
-- “Friends icon” to open a scrollable popup of this user’s friends.
-- Number displaying this user’s score.
-- Possible badge belonging to this user.
12. Ranking (Hall of Fame) Page:
- Please refer Page 12.
- Hall of Fame banner on top.
- Two ranking blocks, each displaying 5 users:
-- Highest Power: highest (combined city) score.
-- Most renewable: highest percentage of power derived from solar + wind.
- Associated badges also displayed with each user.
Important:
- Keep things consistent. This means all graphic styles should work together.
- All of the graphics should have a similar feel and general aesthetic appearance
Target Audience:
- Smartphone users and mobile game players who may not be already familiar with energy or solar but are interested in playing a Farmville/Hay Day/Clash of Clans type social games. The game is aimed to be fun and educate the player about basic energy concepts/technology and provides and incentive to contribute to real world projects (Sungiver)
Judging Criteria:
- How well you plan the user experience and capture your ideas visually.
- Cleanliness and “catchiness” of your graphics and design.
- Your design should possible to build and make sense as a mobile application.
Submission & Source Files:
Preview Image
Please create your preview image as one (1) 1024x1024px JPG or PNG file in RGB color mode at 72dpi and place a screenshot of your submission within it.
Submission File
Submit JPG/PNG for your submission files.
Source Files
All original source files of the submitted design. Files should be created in Adobe Photoshop and saved as layered PSD file, or Adobe Illustrator as a layered AI file.
Final Fixes
As part of the final fixes phase you may be asked to modify your graphics (sizes or colors) or modify overall colors. We may ask you to update your design or graphics based on checkpoint feedback.
Please read the challenge specification carefully and watch the forums for any questions or feedback concerning this challenge. It is important that you monitor any updates provided by the client or Studio Admins in the forums. Please post any questions you might have for the client in the forums.