Rive animations, Characters, Assets, UI (FeedTheFish game)

The FeedTheFish game is designed in a fun cartoon style.

So the gamers might escape their daily problems by immersing themselves in a bright and colourful fish realm.

However, the game goal is also to provide the users with new information about the inhabitants of the undersea world, as well as to raise their consciousness of the environmental concerns caused by global ocean pollution.

For the FeedTheFish game, I created all the characters, props assets, backgrounds, animations, and user interface.

Working on the Cat, my task was to create a character that would be a personal assistant for FeedTheFish game users.

Its purposes are to provide tips and advice, as well as to recognise and reward accomplishments. It also assigns tasks to the players.

Furthermore, if the user makes a mistake, this companion gently warns him.

That is why a nice, adorable, and trustworthy character was required.

Also, this character is used as the "face" of the game: as the program icon, in the splash screen, and in promotional materials.

I created a plenty of various Fish Characters for FeedTheFish game. For each of them, I came up with its own nature, mood and personality.

Working on the Angler Fish was a true challenge for me. After all, it is most likely the ugliest creature on the planet. However, my goal was to keep the entire game in a cute cartoon aesthetic, immersing the players in a fun and colourful fish kingdom.

The Cat: Based on the task at hand, I opted to create a charming, colourful kitten with wide, trusting eyes and an irresistible smile.

The animation of the Cat's movements is calm and graceful. The character literally squints with delight at the prospect of interacting with the gamer! Is it even possible not to love it? :)

The Angler Fish: It's not easy to force such a violent and repulsive being to look adorable and make the user want to feed it. But I think I handled it well. My Angler Fish appears to be a little goofy and inattentive. It can't actually survive without the player's assistance in finding food!

The movement of the lantern is quite essential in this animation. Angler Fish uses it to light its way through the depths of the sea. This emphasis further brings player's attention to fish's helplessness, making its predatory and nasty nature less significant.

The different emotional states of the fish (calm, angry, happy) are also further emphasised by changing the color of the lantern.

The sad or angry reactions of the fish characters to the plastic rubbish in the water should raise people's attention to the environmental crisis of pollution in the world's oceans.

My workflow was the same as usual: starting with a paper sketch, I went on to create vector images within Sketch app.

Then, I continued my work in the Rive app in order to animate the characters' movements and emotions.

I often choose the Rive app for my animated projects, because of positive experience with this application. I enjoy how the Rive app provides the animator with a wide range of features to work with, while maintaining straightforward, user-friendly interface.

I especially like the Rive's State Machine. It simplifies my collaboration with the software developers because there is no need for a complicated handoff, in addition, it perfectly defines the logic that drives the transitions.