Art Direction, UI Design, 2D Animation
Plantasia is a mobile port of a PC puzzle game designed by Playfirst, makers of Diner Dash. The mobile port was developed by Babaroga and published by Disney. Players plant seeds and harvest the blooming plants for mana points, keeping them watered and fending off bugs and weeds in the process. As players complete puzzles they unlock new levels with new types of plants.
As the project's Art Director, I was tasked with translating the PC original's point-and-click gameplay to a mobile-friendly interface, keeping true to the original game's art style and characters.
To better adapt the gameplay to a small mobile display, my team and I reimagined the playable area as a shelf garden, with players managing up to 9 pots at a time in a 3x3 grid. We came up with four unique settings to serve as backgrounds for each set of puzzles: apartment window, city park, zen garden and rooftop garden. The original game's UI translated well to the new design, with all HUD elements fitting well on the mobile screen without comprimising their readability.
In addition to the UI and background art, I also illustrated and animated the plant character sprites for this mobile adaptation. The plants mostly retained the original characters' designs, but in a sharper-looking pixel art style that was better suited for low-res displays.
Plantasia was well received by critics upon its release for its easy-to-learn gameplay and colorful art. Our producers at Disney also praised our work on this adaptation, commenting that the character sprites were actually an improvement over the PC originals.
All images © Disney and Playfirst