Mission CTRL: Capstone

Mission CTRL is an original educational puzzle game concept that teaches pre-teens to be proactive in digital spaces, and how to spot potential online dangers in a fun, interesting, and approachable way.

This was created as a Capstone project during the first semester of my 4th year at the IDEA School of Design. Beginning with research into kids digital literacy and internet safety, I created Mission CTRL as a conceptual solution to allow youth to further understand the proper steps to take in keeping themselves safe online.

Mission CTRL

Captain your ship across the galaxy battling cosmic threats, solving space puzzles, and building your toolkit to learn online safety skills and see more of the stars.

Character Design Line-up

Beginning with the characters, I knew I wanted a visual style that felt like it matched the internet itself: exciting, colourful, and filled with both opportunities and dangers. Retro-futurism and space cowboys seemed like a perfect fit, as it kept the themes of endless, lawless space to explore, while also bringing in campy, bright, digital visuals that tied in with the messaging and format of the project.

Additional Silhouette Exploration

Character Selection Screen

Character selection motivates player to continue so they can unlock other character skins. Interactivity and agency was proven to be the most effective tool for learning and prolonged engagement for the target age-group.

Character Customization Screen

Character customization creates an element of player choice to get them invested in their character's outcome and allows them to feel in control and connected to the game.

Shield Scramble Minigame

The game is divided into a series of minigames, all designed to teach a different facet of online safety. This game is about learning to defend yourself online by not being afraid to block someone who is being negative or toxic.

Angry Troll Dialogue Screen

The minigames are interspersed with dialogue interactions, as many of the most prevalent online dangers are social ones and youth need practice navigating those situations. This Angry Troll is paired with the previous minigame, and is throwing rocks at your ship. Quick, unscramble your shields!

Find the Faker Minigame

This minigame focuses on one of the most nefarious aspects of navigating online spaces: catfishing and identity theft. The player has to use their investigation skills to pick out the differences between the three near-identical aliens who are all claiming to be the same person.

Sleazy Drifter Dialogue Screen

It encourages the player to take the time to look a little closer at the people they are interacting with online to make sure that they don’t have ulterior motives. The goal is to use key phrases that the player may be able to recognize as a red flag, so they’re more prepared for real-life situations.

Destroy the Virus Minigame

This minigame is about being proactive in your safety skills, as the player whack-a-mole-style squishes bugs before they can infiltrate your ship’s mainframe. The goal of this minigame is to show how emergencies can be prevented by being proactive, for example, by downloading an anti-virus software.

Mechanic Dialogue Screen

This is the friendly mechanic who assists the player in de-bugging their ship. Most internet safety messaging is very entrenched in fear and focuses on internet-abstinence, but I wanted to show that not everyone is out to get you, and that you can have positive and helpful interactions online.

Toolkit Screen

The toolkit functions as a skill tree for the game. Because the minigames are set up as digestible modules, the player can set the pace for their own learning, and revisit and replay each module as many times as they want. The toolkit allows the player to choose how much they want to invest in their own learning, which will impact them down the line when they face the final boss.

Final Boss Dialogue Screen

The final boss is a hologram clone of the player, because ultimately you are your own the biggest obstacle to keeping yourself safe online. The tools that the player has gathered in their tool kit can help them defeat their evil alter-ego, a hologram of them that threatens to post their personal information all across the galaxy.

✦ Animated Gameplay: ✦