FIREFLIGHT PATROL
School Group Project
Introduction
Inspired by our visit to the Forest exhibition at Tekniska Museet, we developed the idea of a firefighting helicopter game during a brainstorming session at the museum. The session sparked creativity, with ideas such as a teachable game for kids, addressing climate change, and creating a fun, immersive experience where children could fly their own helicopter. These ideas came together in a quick and effective brainstorming process.
Key milestones in development included implementing the grid system for the fire spreading mechanic, creating a helicopter model with animations for flying, water collection and release, and a crash sequence.
We conducted a playtest at Tekniska Museet with our target audience. This provided valuable feedback on usability and game balance. For example, we added a difficulty adjustment for the fire-spreading speed and improved the water tank indicator with clearer text showing when it is full or empty.
Our intended audience includes young players as well as casual gamers who enjoy dynamic, accessible gameplay.
This project emphasized the importance of clear priorities, iterative feedback, and adaptability throughout the process.
• Enjoy the flight:
Take pleasure in soaring above the beautiful forest with the easy-to-control helicopter, playable on PC, joystick, and adaptive controllers!
• Play again and again:
Strategize your flight to save larger areas of the forest and protect its inhabitants — both great and small.
• Challenge yourself:
Find the quickest way to extinguish the fire and become the fastest savior of the nature reserve!
Project Details
What I did:
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2D sketch and in-engine 3D gray boxing
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2 weeks of work full-time
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Firestarter spawners and obstacle positioning
Tech Details:
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Unity6 preview
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Player controller, camera, assets and VFX were made by other designers, programmers and artists in the team (credits in the end)
Design Process
For Level Design, we first aimed to create a simple testing environment to evaluate the 3C's and the water picking/release mechanic. For the playtest session, the level needed to include at least one of each game element to showcase all mechanics:
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Flammable trees;
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Obstacles that the player must avoid to prevent helicopter crashes;
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Water sources, to pick and refill the helicopter's water tank.
We also carefully planned the initial fire spawn locations.
Our first level iteration targeted a 5-15 minute gameplay session, featuring three water sources and two types of obstacles (watchtowers and windmills), with flammable trees spread across the map.
After reviewing the feedback we got from the children’s playtest at the museum, we designers came to the conclusion that most of the difficulty issues were mostly a matter of level design rather than only balancing and tweaking parameters from the mechanics. Especially considering that the original level was meant to be only a kind of “Gym Level”, and not the final one.
The way I approached this was by trying to evoke a unique feeling from each interactable element in the game. Now we had:
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6 types of Obstacles
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Watchtowers
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Windmills
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Geysers
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Bridges
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Rock Formations
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Water Sources
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Flammable Trees
I also designed the forest shape so that fires spreading toward the Ancient Tree had to follow narrow corridors of trees before reaching the central area. This helped prevent fires from becoming unpredictable and uncontrollable too quickly.
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Green: Flammable Trees
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Purple: Windmills and Watchtowers (obstacles)
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Gray: Rock Formations and Bridges (obstacles)
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Yellow: Geysers (obstacles)
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Brown: Villages and Roads (non-obstacles)
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Blue: Water Sources
Final Considerations
I learned a lot during GP1. I had the opportunity to improve my design skills, learn Unity, enhance my teamwork abilities, and manage deadlines.
However, I also realized there are several areas where I need to improve:
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Strengthen verbal and written communication with designers and interdisciplinary team members;
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Better document the design process to create clear, accessible documentation for those unfamiliar with development;
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Develop stronger collaboration skills when working with multiple designers;
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Improve deadline management and avoid unnecessary multitasking;
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Enhance my coding and Unity skills;
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and most importantly ⇒ Develop better adaptability to improvise design solutions when unexpected challenges arise during development.
Credits
Designers
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Philip Jensen – Project Owner/Producer
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Heitor Mendonça – Level Designer/Associate Producer
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Kasper Enwall – Technical Designer/Associate Producer
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Tetiana Tretilova – Narrative/Level Designer
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Juno Gillström – Sound Designer
Animation/VFX:
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Rebecka Timper - Generalist VFX/Animation
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Andreas Johansson - Generalist VFX/Animation
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Arda Boyacioglu Nahmiyas – Generalist VFX/Animation
Artists:
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Yana Chechunina – Game Artist
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Zyrile Mae Martens – Game Artist
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(Therese) Ira Aspelin – Game Artist
Programmers:
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Elliot Coffell – Gameplay Programmer
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Zhengyang Lyu – Generalist Programmer
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Yongqin Yu – Tools/System Programmer
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Oliver Henriksson – UI Programmer