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Cyber Guardians: Adventures of Gadget & Digit
Cyber Guardians Hero
// Project Definition
Project:Cyber Guardians: Adventures of Gadget & Digit
Year:2025–Present (On Hold)
Type:Educational Adventure Game
Role:Game Designer & Developer (Gameplay Systems, UX, Prototyping)
Collab:Cyber-security domain expert (content validation)
Description:Cyber Guardians is a third-person educational adventure game designed to teach children foundational cyber-security concepts through play. Players explore a series of floating islands, each representing a real-world online safety topic such as password security, scam awareness, AI literacy, privacy, and cyberbullying.
Tech:
UnityC#BlenderAnimatorUI/UX Design

Focus: Designing expressive character-driven interactions that translate cyber-security concepts into narrative, dialogue, and animation-driven gameplay for children aged 6–15.

Implemented Systems & Prototypes

Character Animation & Expression

Implemented expressive character animations using Unity Animator and blend trees, allowing characters to respond emotionally to player dialogue and narrative context.

Reactive Dialogue & Dialogue Trees

Built a branching dialogue system where character animations and behaviours react dynamically to specific lines of dialogue, reinforcing narrative intent and emotional feedback.

Digit companion animation

Companion-Driven Guidance

Designed and implemented a companion character that provides contextual hints, reacts to player choices, and reinforces learning outcomes through animation and dialogue.

Animated props and world feedback

Animated Props & World Feedback

Created animated props and environmental elements to support storytelling and reinforce player interaction in a calm, child-friendly way.

Gameplay & Interaction Design

class CoreInteractions {
// Primary player interactions
• Movement and environmental exploration
• Dialogue with NPCs and companion prompts
• Dialogue-driven interaction with animation-reactive NPCs
• Drag-and-drop and choice-based mini-games
• Simple UI for quick learning objectives
}
class PlayerExperience {
// Design notes on pacing and guidance
• Low-pressure exploratory adventure with gradual onboarding
• Controls introduced through in-world tutorial moments
• Digit provides contextual hints and learning reinforcement
• Accessibility-minded pacing and optional guidance
}
YouTube gameplay embed placeholder

Dialogue & Animation Integration

A core focus of this project was exploring how character animation and dialogue systems can work together to create expressive, emotionally readable interactions for young players. Dialogue trees are authored with metadata that triggers animation changes, posture shifts, and emotional reactions in characters. This allows conversations to feel responsive rather than static, even within an educational context.

Dialogue choice → character reaction

Educational Design Approach

Island Topics

  • • Password security
  • • Scam awareness
  • • Responsible AI use
  • • Online safety & privacy
  • • Cyberbullying & digital empathy

Learning Reinforcement

  • • Immediate feedback
  • • Visual and audio cues
  • • Repetition through varied interactions
  • • End-of-island summaries and reflection prompts
// Content was reviewed and shaped in collaboration with a cyber-security professional to ensure accuracy and age-appropriate messaging.

Art Direction & Tone

Low-poly pastel visual style

Low-poly Pastel Visuals

The game uses a low-poly, pastel visual style to create a calm and welcoming atmosphere. Environments are designed to feel playful rather than threatening, even when addressing serious topics.

Character Expression

Characters rely on expressive body language and conversational cues to communicate emotion, reducing the need for complex scripting while remaining accessible to younger players.

View Cyber Guardians Assets

Accessibility & Inclusivity

Accessibility Features

  • • Adjustable difficulty and hint systems
  • • Large, high-contrast UI elements
  • • Subtitle support with scalable text
  • • Colour-blind friendly palettes
  • • Multiple input methods (keyboard, controller, touch)

Narrative Tone

The narrative emphasises kindness, empathy, and responsible digital citizenship, aligning with best-practice online safety guidelines.

Project Status & Next Steps

Cyber Guardians is currently on hold in a design and prototype state.

The project served as an exploration into educational game design, systems planning, and interdisciplinary collaboration. While not actively in development, the design document and early prototypes provide a strong foundation for future continuation or adaptation.

// Potential Future Directions
  • • Interactive classroom pilot
  • • Expanded teacher tools
  • • Additional islands covering emerging online risks
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