Mutabio: A game about of biodiversity
At Chico Mendes Institute's natural reserve "Parque Nacional da Serra dos Órgãos", you play as an intern biologist who find yourself in a rather fantastic situation: the endemic fauna and flora has grown into huge "monsters". But don't worry, despite being sentient and huge, these mutated beings mean no harm. But there are some people who do want to harm them: criminals who wish to kidnap and enslave for their financial gains... Since then, some of the mutabios, as they ended up calling the monsters, started acting rather aggressive towards humans. It is now up to you and the reserve workers to handle the situation.
Originally intended to be downloadable on the Apple Store and Google Play, with QR codes printed around the park so that visitors (mostly middle school field trip groups) would get to know the applicative and share: expanding the player base to non-visitors: while sharing Chico Mendes Institute's importance. The game was done alone (at Gamemaker), but the project was also accompanied by a magazine, made with the aid of a college colleague. The magazine would show information of the reserve and gameplay tips.
It took about 4 months to conclude the demo of the project, it counted on many areas inspired on Serra dos Órgãos' structures, with friendly and hostile "mutabios" manipulated by enemies that you've encountered along the complex, yet child-friendly storyline. Trying to take the most original and comical approach possible on a play style that resembles the long running franchise "Pokémon".
During most of the project time, I've worked on gathering data directly at Serra dos Órgãos. Taking pictures or recording audio/videos of the paths changing from daytime to nighttime at the reserve, feeling the extreme cold of the night and the slippy stones during the heavy rains... It was a very fruitful trip, as an urban citizen, I've experienced sensorial ambient phenomena from the local nature. To this day, it reflects a lot on any eco-related projects I work on!
Pictures of field research used to work on the concept art:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-Ejb7XbUQLTYxYehZSffFXo3oDbcpfkM?usp=sharing
