Project 13 · Experience

Water Journey

An interactive water exhibition at São Paulo's Museu da Imaginação, with a dive into a dam and its energy.

Genre:: Educational Games, Exhibition
Scope:: Game Design · Level Design · UX/UI · Art Direction
Development Time:: 2 Months
Team Size:: 4
Tools:: Unity

Project Resume

Overview

Water Journey, an interactive exhibition sponsored by Unipar at São Paulo's Museu da Imaginação, with a dive into a dam, energy minigames and a pipe puzzle on a touch panel.

Platform Touch Panel · Screens
Team Size 4
Duration 2 Months
Engine Unity

Key Features

A dive into the dam to see the turbines
Five minigames about gates, electrons and energy
A 20-level pipe puzzle on a two-meter touch panel
Three stars per level and a live ranking
A water scale that shows the water in your body
Three visual versions, cartoon chosen

My Role

Game & Art Director

Directed the games and the art of the exhibition for two artists and a programmer, and designed every puzzle level, screen and interaction.

Designed all 20 levels of the pipe puzzle
Directed the art and all the UI and UX
Kept a team of three on schedule

Design Brief

Museu da Imaginação, a children's museum in São Paulo, opened Water Journey in 2025, an exhibition sponsored by Unipar on water and its power, from a dam and its turbines to the energy that reaches every home. Each part needed short, simple games that children could play on their own, built in one to two days each, under the client's strict art guidelines.

Constraints

For childrenShort, simple games that children could understand and play on their own.
Explain a damFrom the dam and the turbines to the energy that reaches every house.
Fast buildsOne to two days per minigame, with many prototypes along the way.
Strict rulesA client art director with firm guidelines for the whole look of the exhibition.

Design Goal

Every game had to turn one part of the dam into something a child could play and understand, from keeping the dam's water level steady to sending the right amount of energy to each house. The pipe puzzle had to be easy to finish on a direct path and still reward the children who explored, and the exhibition had to look good within the client's strict guidelines for every game and screen.

From the dam to the house

Dive. Balance. Power.

DiveGo into the dam to see the turbines inside.
BalanceKeep the gates and the water level steady.
PowerSend the right amount of energy to every house.

Player Experience Pillars

Play to learnEach game explains one part.
Short and simpleGames children finish alone.
Easy or deeperA direct path or all the stars.
Clear feedbackGreen pipes, brighter houses.
Within the rulesThe client's guidelines, done well.

Design Solution

I directed the games of the exhibition and designed how each one teaches. A dive into the dam shows the turbines from inside, a gate minigame keeps the water level steady, an electron runs along the power lines, and an energy game balances the power of every house. For water distribution I designed a 20-level pipe puzzle on a two-meter touch panel, with stars that guide the way and a live ranking of every visitor.

Key Design Choices

Teach by playingTurned each step from the dam to the houses into a short minigame that children could finish on their own.
Prototype fastBuilt about ten prototypes in one to two days each, and five of them became the official games.
A pipe puzzleDesigned all 20 levels, with a direct route to the goal and branches that collect the stars.
Stars and rankingThree stars per level and a ranking of every visitor rewarded the children who explored more of each puzzle.
Clear feedbackPipes turn green when the water flows, and houses glow brighter when they get too much energy.

World & Visual Identity

A bright cartoon world for a children's museum, chosen by the client over a realistic version and a middle ground. The games show the dam from inside the water to the power lines and the houses, on screens and on a touch panel the size of a person.

Visual Principles

Cartoon for kidsChosen over a realistic and a middle version.
Inside the damA dive past the turbines in a 3D vessel.
Power linesAn electron running to people's homes.
Human sizeA two-meter touch panel to play on.
Strict guidelinesThe client's art rules, with some freedom.

Results & Learnings

Results

Five games deliveredDelivered five official minigames out of about ten prototypes, each built in one to two days and approved by the client.
A 20-level puzzleDesigned every level of the pipe puzzle on a two-meter touch panel, with three stars per level and a ranking of every visitor that updated on its own.
A team on scheduleDirected two artists and a programmer and kept the deliveries on time, while my partner set up the hardware on site.

Learnings

Prototype to convinceWith about ten prototypes for five games, building a playable version fast was the clearest way to show the client what worked for the children.
Two paths, one puzzleA direct path for everyone and stars for the curious let a single puzzle serve both the children who want to finish and those who love to explore.
The audience sets the lookThe middle version looked the most beautiful, but the cartoon one fit the children of the museum, so the audience decided the style of the puzzle.

Media

The work, up close

Roles

Roles & Responsibilities

Direction

Directed the exhibition's games from idea to delivery
Led two artists and a programmer through the project
Kept every delivery on schedule for the museum client
Followed the client's strict art guidelines throughout

Game & Level Design

Designed all twenty levels of the water pipe puzzle
Placed the stars and the branches of every puzzle level
Designed the minigames about the dam and the energy
Built about ten prototypes in one to two days each

UX & UI

Designed all the UI and UX of the whole exhibition
Designed the feedback of every game and every screen
Designed the flow and the screens of the water scale
Set up the live ranking of every visitor of the puzzle

Art & 3D

Set the art direction within the client's guidelines
Built all the 3D scenery of the water pipe puzzle
Modeled the large 3D vessel of the dive into the dam
Made three visual versions of the pipe puzzle scenery

Full Case Study

Water Journey Case Study

The Exhibition

Feature Introduction

A dam and its energy, told through play

The exhibition starts inside the dam. Visitors dive into it to see how the turbines work, in a large 3D vessel that I modeled for the trip through the water, so the hidden inside of a dam becomes a place to explore with their own eyes.

In the Power Plant Room, visitors play seated in rows in front of a large LED wall, each chair with a controller on its arm, and every game explains one step of the energy, from the water held back by the dam to the light of each home.

Visitors also step on a scale to see how much water they should drink and how much is in their body, with pumps at the sides showing their own amount. I designed its art, its screens and the visitor's flow, so a number about the body became something children could watch fill up in front of them, with their own water in it.

Design Principles

Turn each step of the dam and its energy into a game a child can play alone and still understand what that step does on the way to the houses
Keep every minigame short and simple, so children finish it and move on to the next part of the exhibition with what they just learned
Show the result of every action clearly, from the water level of the dam to the brightness of each house, so children see at once what their action changed
Respect the client's strict art guidelines and still find room to make the whole exhibition look better than asked, in every game and every screen

Feature Breakdown

The Power Plant Room, in detail

01 The GatesBalancing the water level of a dam

The Gates

Balancing the water level of a dam

The first game puts players at the gates of the dam. When one gate lets out too much water, they close it and open another to keep the level of the dam steady, so the first step of the energy, holding back the water, is learned by doing it, with every result showing right away in the water level on the LED wall in front of them.

Function

Turn controlling the water of a dam into the first game of energy

Design Approach

Decisions made:

Open and close the gates to keep the water level of the dam steady
Let one gate release too much water so players have to react to it
Explain the first step of the energy through the water held back
Keep the game readable for a whole room playing on one LED wall

Player Impact

Allowed players to...

Learn how a dam holds its water by controlling the gates themselves
React when a gate lets out too much water and steady the level again
Play together with the room, each seat with its own controller
See the result of every choice in the level of the water on the wall

02 The Electron RunAn infinite runner along the power lines

The Electron Run

An infinite runner along the power lines

The second game turns the trip of the energy into an infinite runner. Players guide an electron along the power lines, collecting the positive charges and dodging the negative ones until it reaches the homes, so the way electricity travels from the dam to a city becomes a run they control themselves from the seat.

Function

Show how energy travels from the dam to the homes as a run to play

Design Approach

Decisions made:

Turn the trip of the energy into an infinite runner on power lines
Place positive charges to collect and negative charges to dodge
End every run at the homes, where the energy is meant to arrive
Keep the controls to the few buttons on the arm of each seat

Player Impact

Allowed players to...

Follow the path of electricity from the dam to the homes by playing
Collect the positive charges and dodge the negative ones on the way
Feel the speed of energy on the power lines as they run along them
Reach the homes at the end of the line, closing the trip of the energy

03 Energy ControlSending the right energy to every home

Energy Control

Sending the right energy to every home

The third game asks players to direct the energy. A home that gets too much glows brighter than the others, so the goal is to keep every home balanced, and the last step of the trip, sharing energy across a city, is learned by watching the lights of the whole city respond to each choice they make on the LED wall.

Function

Teach that energy has to be shared in balance across every home

Design Approach

Decisions made:

Let players direct the energy to each home of the city by themselves
Make a home glow brighter when it receives more energy than it needs
Set the goal as keeping every home balanced at the same time
Close the trip of the energy at the homes, the last step of the room

Player Impact

Allowed players to...

Direct the energy to every home and watch each light respond to it
Spot a home with too much energy by how much brighter it glows
Keep the whole city balanced instead of filling a single home
Learn the last step of energy, sharing it, by playing it themselves

Pipe Puzzle

Feature Introduction

Twenty levels of water

The pipe puzzle stands on a two-meter LED touch panel, the size of a person, where children rotate the pipes with their own fingers to lead the water from the start of each level to its end, one connection at a time across the wall.

I designed all twenty levels with rising difficulty. A direct path always reaches the end, while branches and dead-end pipes hold three stars that also guide players, so every child can finish and the best still have something to chase.

Connected pipes turn green when the water passes, and a ranking that updates on its own shows who did best among all the visitors, rewarding the children who went after every star on the touch panel of the museum and giving the next child waiting in line a score to beat before their own turn on the wall.

Design Principles

Keep a direct path to the end in every level, so any child can finish the puzzle on the panel without any help from an adult or a guide
Reward exploration with three stars per level, so curious players have a reason to branch out and try new routes through the pipes to reach every star
Raise the difficulty with every level across all twenty, so returning visitors still find a new challenge every time they come back to the panel
Make the water visible, with pipes turning green as it flows, so every right move is confirmed at once on the panel, before the next pipe is placed

Behind the Feature

How the puzzle was built

01 Twenty Pipe LevelsDirect path · Branches with stars · Rising difficulty · Live ranking

Goal

A puzzle every child can finish and master

Keep a direct path to the end in every level, so any child can finish alone
Reward curious players with three stars on branches off the direct path
Raise the difficulty across twenty levels, so returning visitors find more

Constraints

A two-meter touch panel in a museum

Fit pipes that children rotate with their own fingers on a panel their size
Keep each level short, since another child is always waiting in the line
Confirm every right move at once, before the next pipe on the wall is turned

Process

Drawn on a grid I drew each level on a grid on paper first, starting from a direct path from start to end, so any child can always finish without help from an adult, then added the branches around it.
Stars on the branches Branches and dead-end pipes hold the three stars, so the stars both reward exploring and hint at routes a child would not try while following the direct path to the end.
A difficulty curve I ordered the twenty levels by path length, branches and dead ends, so each level asks for a little more planning than the one right before it, with no jump in between.
Green water, live ranking Connected pipes turn green as the water passes, and a live ranking updates, so each child sees a right move at once and a score to beat at the end, built from the stars collected.

The decision that made it work

Separate finishing from mastering

The direct path guarantees that every child finishes, while the stars on the branches give the best players something more to chase. One level serves both, so a child alone and a child chasing the ranking play the same wall.

Result

A wall that every child could finish

Children reached the end of each level on their own, the curious ones branched out to collect the stars, and the live ranking gave the next child in line a score to beat before their own turn at the wall of the exhibition.

Impact

How the puzzle shapes each touch

Always a Way

A direct route reaches the end of every level, so children who just want to finish never get stuck in front of the panel.
Hunt the Stars

Stars sit off the direct path, so curious players branch out and test dead ends to collect all three in each level.
See the Water

Pipes turn green as the water passes, so children see at once that their move worked and read where it goes next.
Play for the Top

A live ranking of every visitor gives children a reason to come back to the panel and try to beat the best score of the day.

Design Iterations

01 Three LooksThe cartoon version for children

01 Three Looks

Problem

The puzzle needed the right look

The pipe puzzle had to appeal to the children of the museum and still follow the client's strict guidelines, and the right style was not clear before seeing it running on the touch panel itself.

Cause

Style changes who the game speaks to

A realistic look and a cartoon look speak to different audiences, so the choice depended on who would stand in front of the panel.

Solution

Built three visual versions to compare

The fastest way to settle a question of style was to show it running. Three versions on the real touch panel let the client choose with the game in hand, with the children the museum was made for as the measure.

Build three versions of the scenery to compare on the real touch panel
Make a cartoon version and a realistic version of the very same pipe puzzle
Make a middle ground between the two, for the client to judge on the panel

Result

The cartoon version for children

The audience decided the style more than taste did, and making three versions turned an opinion into a choice the client could see and touch on the panel itself, before the art went into production.

The client chose the cartoon look, made for the museum's children
The middle ground looked the most beautiful of the three versions
One style then carried through the whole puzzle on the touch panel

02 Prototypes to GamesFive official minigames

02 Prototypes to Games

Problem

Each idea had to prove itself

Every step from the dam to the houses could become many different games, and the client had to see a game working before approving it for the exhibition.

Cause

A good idea on paper can fail in play

Whether a game explained its step of the journey clearly to a child only became clear once a child could actually play it.

Solution

Built fast prototypes and variations

Approval had to come from play. Fast prototypes made each idea cheap to test with the client, so the ones that did not explain their step could be dropped early and the ones that worked could grow into variations of the same idea.

Build about ten short prototypes in total, each one in one to two days of work
Make variations of each idea until the client approved it for the exhibition
Show the client each game running on the panel before asking for its approval

Result

Five official minigames

About ten quick prototypes became five finished games, so the exhibition opened with a set of experiences that had each proven themselves in play before any of them was produced in full for the hall.

Five prototypes became the official minigames of the exhibition hall
Each game explained one step of the water from the dam to the houses
Children could finish every game on their own in just a short time

Development

Prototypes, Levels & 3D

Conclusion

Design Conclusions

Water Journey turned a dam and its energy into games a child could play alone. I directed the games and the art for two artists and a programmer, designed the twenty levels of the pipe puzzle and every screen, and built about ten prototypes on the way to five official games.

The audience shaped every game we made. Children set the style, the pace and the shape of every game, so the puzzle kept a direct path for those who want to finish and stars for those who explore, and the cartoon look won over the version that looked the most beautiful.

Design Takeaways

Scale changes how a puzzle reads

On a panel two meters tall, a child stands inside the puzzle, so clarity depends on what reads up close. Screen size became a design constraint as strong as the rules of the puzzle itself.
Feedback can replace instructions

Green pipes and houses that glow brighter showed children what each action did. A game that answers every move clearly needs no line of text to teach its step of the journey to a child.
Strict rules still leave room

Firm art guidelines showed that directing art often means finding where the look can still improve inside the limits, more than choosing a style from scratch for every game and every screen.

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