Art Therapy Game with Custom Controller
Wind Will Tell
Wind Will Tell is an art therapy game through a series of globes in search of a dandelion, featuring ambient sounds of swaying grass, moving rails, and shifting cityscapes. With first-person and third-person perspectives, players immerse, heal, and empathize with heightened perceptions of their surroundings.
Game: Collaborated with Hannah Oh, 5 weeks (2023)
Controller: Solo project, 2 months (2024-25)
Finalist in alt.ctrl.GDC 2025↗ at Game Developers Conference
Role
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Tools
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Game Designer
Programmer
3D Artist
Hardware Developer
Unity
Blender
Arduino
Children with higher sensitivity, like orchids, struggle more to adapt to new environments or maintain focus.
The problem statement is…
Through a restorative environment, reshape perceptions of our surroundings by fostering empathy and understanding among people with varying sensitivities.
The project envisions…
Act I. Garden Globe
Act II. Train Globe
Act III. City Globe
Act IV. Dandelion Globe
Contributions
As the Technical Designer, I led the environment storytelling and mechanics design based on our experience goal:
Experience Goal:
1 Design a surreal, slow-paced, and emotionally evocative world, incorporating natural elements for immersion.
2 The interaction design is minimalist-style, focused on low-stimulus activities like planet walking to minimize distractions.
3 Use audio and light to subtly guide players to the goal while forming meaningful connections with their environment.
Exposition: A step into nature
Climax: A dynamic spectacle
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Revealation: A tale of the wind
Post-climax: A curtain-fall
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As the Technical Artist, I solved these design challenges:
1
Interactive Feature - Perspective Change
Created a single-key camera switch to let players easily toggle perspectives.
2
Visual Consistency - Post-Processing
Rendered unique skyboxes and post-processing effects for each scene, aligning with the time of day and narrative progression.
3
Optimization - Customized Particles and LODs
Created dandelion seed particles for the ending scene with two spawning points based on the player's position, using LODs to optimize performance on the high-poly planet.
Credits:
Game: Collaborated with Hannah Oh, 5 weeks (2023)
Controller: Solo project, 2 months (2024-25)
