"Water You Doing?" is a gamification application developed as part of the Joint Master's program in "Digital Communication and Creative Media Production" (UniFR/FHGR) in collaboration with the NGO Wasser für Wasser (WfW). The goal of this interactive 3D/2D simulation is to raise awareness of how everyday household decisions—such as the disposal of cooking oil—affect Swiss water quality.
Players navigate through a virtual 3D house and make decisions whose consequences impact the well-being of an animated 2D fish in a bowl in real-time. This mechanism, inspired by the "Tamagotchi effect," is designed to create an emotional connection and foster a sense of personal responsibility. The prototype was preceded by a quantitative study to systematically investigate the environmental awareness of Swiss households.
My Role in the Project
In this six-person interdisciplinary team, I intentionally stepped out of my comfort zone and took on responsibility in the following areas:
Research & Data Analysis: Co-developed the survey design and the quantitative methodology. Familiarized myself with the statistical software JASP to evaluate the collected data (e.g., correlation analyses, hypothesis testing).
3D Character Pipeline & Unity: Responsible for full character creation (modeling in Blender, rigging, animation blending) as well as the implementation of the camera and joystick navigation system in Unity.
UI & Backend Development: Programmed dynamic UI elements (such as the progress bar) and built a functional PHP/MySQL backend to enable a real newsletter signup directly from within the game.
Design: Designed the layout for the proposal, final presentation, and follow-up communication.
Learnings
The greatest enrichment of the project was the steep learning curve in statistical analysis and backend integration in Unity. Simultaneously, working in the team highlighted the importance of early, crystal-clear communication in technical workflows (such as prefabs and version control via SourceTree) to successfully realize shared creative visions.
Credits
A big thank you to my fantastic team: Carla Münzer, Pavithra Paul, Selina Winter, Wendy Iriarte, and Vera Bumann. Thanks also to our practice partner Wasser für Wasser (WfW), as well as our lecturers and technical advisors for their valuable support.
