Project 12 · Game

Trade Ball

A gamified take on trading where a live Bitcoin price becomes a football match on a toy-like field.

Genre:: Gamified Trading
Scope:: Art Direction · 3D & Animation · UX/UI · Team Lead
Development Time:: 2 Weeks
Team Size:: 4
Tools:: Unity

Project Resume

Overview

A gamified take on binary options and day trading, where the live Bitcoin price becomes a football match, the center line is zero and every goal is a target reached.

Platform Web
Team Size 4
Duration 2 Weeks
Engine Unity

Key Features

The live Bitcoin price shown as a football match
The center line is zero, the goals are the targets
Two teams for the price going up or down
Choose how far the price must go to score
A target and a stop for simple trades
Toy figures with big heads on platforms

My Role

Chief Creative Officer

Directed the art and the UX of the game and led a team of four, from the 3D characters and their animations to the interface.

Led a team of four on the project
Made the 3D characters and their animations
Designed the whole UI and UX

Design Brief

A client wanted a football game to bring entertainment to binary options and day trading, two ideas that most people find hard to read on a chart. The game had to follow the real Bitcoin price live, stay simple enough for anyone to try, and speak to a Brazilian audience that loves football and wants to have fun with a chance to win.

Constraints

Live dataThe real Bitcoin price, followed in real time by the game while the trade runs.
Simple tradingDay trading made easy enough for anyone to try.
Brazilian funAn idea built around the football Brazilians love.
Read at onceNo candles or charts to read before playing.

Design Goal

The game had to replace the trading chart with something people already understand. A football field gave every element a clear meaning, the center line as zero, the goals as targets and the two teams as the two directions of the price, so a player could read a trade at a glance and enjoy watching it play out.

From the pick to the goal

Pick. Watch. Score.

PickChoose if the price will rise or fall this time.
WatchFollow the ball on the field as the price moves.
ScoreReach the goal by the time the period closes.

Player Experience Pillars

No chartsA match in place of candles.
Live priceBitcoin in real time.
Simple tradesA target and a stop.
A readable fieldZero at the center line.
Toy footballBig heads, small bodies.

Design Solution

I turned the trading chart into a football field. The center line is zero, the two teams stand for the price going up or down, and the ball moves with the live Bitcoin price. The distance from the center to the goal is the target, so a goal near the center pays less and a far one pays more, and a trade mode adds a target and a minimum to sell before a loss. Preset ratios like two to one keep every choice simple, even for someone trying trading for the first time.

Key Design Choices

A field for a chartReplaced the candles with a football field, with zero at the center line and the targets placed at the goals.
Two teamsOne team for the price going up and one for going down, never the player's own team.
Distance is valueA goal near the center pays less and a far goal pays more, so players choose their own risk.
Trade modeA target and a minimum to sell let players exit before a loss, a simple day trade without jargon.
Live BitcoinThe match follows the real Bitcoin price in real time, as precise as the market itself.

World & Visual Identity

A football match made of toys. The players are big-headed figures with small bodies standing on little platforms, like the toy football figures popular in Brazil, a playful look that simplifies both the visuals and the idea of trading.

Visual Principles

Toy footballFigures on platforms, like a classic Brazilian toy.
Big headsA chibi look without the anime style.
A real fieldCenter line, goals and two teams.
Simple by designTrading made visual and easy to follow.
Made in 3DCharacters, textures and animations by me.

Results & Learnings

Results

Trading as footballTurned binary options and day trading into a football match that anyone could read, driven by the live Bitcoin price.
A team of fourLed a team of four as Chief Creative Officer, setting the art direction and the UX of the whole game.
Art made in-houseMade every 3D character, texture and animation and the post-processing of the game, in a toy-like style built to speak to a Brazilian audience.

Learnings

A familiar frameMapping a trading chart onto a football field made a hard idea readable without explaining a single term of a chart.
Risk as distanceTurning the target of a trade into the distance to a goal let players choose their risk in a way that felt like a game.
The look sets the toneA toy-like look made trading feel like entertainment, which was the whole point for a Brazilian audience.

Media

The work, up close

Roles

Roles & Responsibilities

Direction

Led a team of four as the project's Chief Creative Officer
Set the art direction of the whole game, field to screens
Turned the whole trading chart into a football match
Kept the visuals and the interface telling one story

Concept

Mapped the zero of a trade to the center line of the field
Made the two goals of the field the targets that every trade aims for
Tied the value of each trade to its distance to the goal
Added a target and a minimum to sell for simple trades

3D & Animation

Modeled every character of the game in 3D for the field
Painted the textures of the players and of the field
Animated the toy players for every moment of a match
Set the post-processing of the whole game's look

UX & UI

Designed the UX of picking a trade and following it
Designed every screen of the game's whole interface
Made the live price easy to read right on the field
Designed the choice of the target and of its ratio

Full Case Study

Trade Ball Case Study

The Match

Feature Introduction

A trading chart, played as football

I replaced the candles of a trading chart with a football field, where the center line is zero and each team is a direction of the price, so anyone who knew football could read the state of a trade at a glance, the way they read a match.

The distance from the center line to the goal is the target of the trade. A goal close to the center is easier to reach and pays less, and a far goal pays more, so every player chooses how much risk to take on by choosing the goal.

The game also worked for trading, with a target value and a minimum to sell on each side, so a player could exit before a loss, while preset ratios like two to one kept every choice simple to make for people who had never traded anything before, turning the market into a match they already knew how to read and follow.

Design Principles

Replace the chart with a football field, so anyone can read a trade without knowing how to read candles or any term of trading
Give every part of the field a meaning, the center as zero, the goals as targets and the teams as directions of the price, up or down
Let players choose their own risk through the distance to the goal, close and safe or far away and more rewarding, the way a player sets up a play
Follow the real Bitcoin price live, so the match on the field is as precise as the market behind it and the ball moves the moment the price does

Behind the Feature

How the match was mapped

01 Trade as a MatchCenter line at zero · Goals as targets · Risk by distance · Live price

Goal

Read a trade the way you read a match

Let anyone read the state of a trade without knowing how to read candles
Give every part of the field one meaning tied to the price of the trade
Let players choose their risk the way a player sets up a play on the field

Constraints

Real trading behind a football field

Follow the real Bitcoin price live, so the ball moves when the price does
Keep a target and a minimum to sell on each side of the field, as in trading
Keep every choice simple for people who had never traded anything before

Process

Mapping the chart I mapped each element of a trading chart to a football field, the center line as zero and each team as one direction of the price, so the match reads the trade for anyone who knows football.
Goals as targets The distance from the center line to each goal became the target of the trade, so risk is set by distance, with a near, safer goal paying less and a far one paying more.
Exits on each side Each side kept a target value and a minimum to sell, so a player could leave before a loss, the way a stop loss works in real trading, drawn as a line on each side of the field.
Preset ratios Preset ratios like two to one replaced free numbers, so a newcomer picks a play the way they would in football and the math of the trade stays behind the field, worked out from the live price.

The decision that made it work

Turn the price into the position of a ball

Mapping the live price to a ball on a field let people use a reading they already had. Anyone who follows football knows at once who is winning and how close a goal is, so the state of a trade read at a single glance.

Result

A trade anyone could follow

Players who had never read a chart followed their trade as a match, set their own risk by how far the goal was and could leave before a loss, while the ball followed the real Bitcoin price live, keeping the match as precise as the market behind it.

Impact

How the field changes a trade

Read at a Glance

The ball's position on the field shows where the trade stands, so players follow it without reading a single number.
Choose the Risk

Moving the goal closer or farther lets players decide how bold to be, in a way that feels like setting up a play on the field.
Exit in Time

A minimum to sell gives players a simple way out before a loss, the core idea of a day trade without any of its jargon.
Watch It Play

The live price turns every trade into a match to watch, with all the tension of a goal that may or may not come in time.

Design Iterations

01 From Realistic to ToysTrading read like a game

01 From Realistic to Toys

Problem

The first look was a realistic football match

The first version showed a realistic football match. On top of a live Bitcoin price, the serious look made the game read like one more trading tool, far from the entertainment the client wanted to bring to trading.

Cause

A realistic look kept trading serious

Realism tied the game to the weight of a real match and a real chart, while the brief asked for something light enough for anyone to try.

Solution

Turned the players into toy figures

The look had to change what the game meant. Toy figures from Brazilian football carry play and nostalgia, so the same match on top of a live price could read as a game from the very first glance at the field on the screen.

Redesign the players as big-headed toy figures on small platforms
Model, texture and animate every figure in 3D for the new look
Set the post-processing of the whole game to match the toy style

Result

Trading read like a game

The look did half of the product's job. By the time a player understood the trading behind the match, the game had already told them it was meant to be fun, light and easy to try for anyone, even a first-timer.

The match felt like entertainment from the very first glance
The toy figures simplified both the visuals and the idea of trading
Players met a football look they already knew from Brazilian toys

Toy Football

Feature Introduction

Toy football in 3D

The players are big-headed figures with small bodies on little platforms, inspired by the toy football figures popular in Brazil, a chibi look without anime that any Brazilian football fan recognizes at once on the field of the game.

I modeled the characters in 3D, painted their textures, animated them and set the post-processing, giving the game a playful look that made trading feel like entertainment for its Brazilian audience, closer to a match on television than to a chart on a screen.

As Chief Creative Officer I led a team of four, set the art direction of the whole game and designed its UI and UX, so the visuals on the field and the interface on screen always told one simple story, a match where every goal is a trade, readable by anyone who has ever watched a game of football on television with friends.

Design Principles

Simplify trading through a playful look, so the whole idea feels like entertainment and never like a financial tool to people who have never traded
Build the characters on a toy that Brazilians recognize, so the game speaks to its audience from the very first sight of a player on the field
Keep the visuals and the interface telling one story, from the football field to all the screens and menus a player sees in the game
Make every player read clearly on the field, with big heads and simple shapes that still read well on small screens while the ball moves

Development

Characters, Animation & UI

Conclusion

Design Conclusions

Trade Ball turned the live Bitcoin price into a football match. As Chief Creative Officer I led a team of four, made the 3D players and their animations, and designed the UI and UX that let someone place a trade by choosing how far the ball has to travel across the field.

A familiar frame does the teaching, and football was that frame. Football already explains winning, losing and distance, so mapping the chart onto the field let players read risk and reward at a glance, before learning any term of trading or reading a single chart.

Design Takeaways

Keep the data live

Following the real Bitcoin price live kept every match true to the market, so the fun of watching the ball never hid what was really happening in the trade the player had placed.
Simple choices, real trades

Preset ratios like two to one and a minimum to sell turned day trading into a few clear choices, so a first-time player could place a real trade with no jargon at all and follow it live on the field.
One story on two layers

Directing the 3D players and the UI together kept the field and the interface telling one story, from the toy figures on the field to the screen where each trade is placed.

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