As a response to my DA&D brief for Respect for Animals, I decided to respond to the task of generating a social media campaign through designing an interactive and subconsciously educational game, that has hard hitting facts - shocking you at the end and provoking emotive and sympathetic reactions.
The way in which I have tackled this task has been a challenge. I have never created a game before so this project has been a way for me to learn new programmes in depth (Adobe After Effects) and to learn new skills such as frame by frame animation.
How can I attract a large audience without turning them off by ‘preaching’ about my activist views on the fur trade? I began by sketching my ideas and jotting down varies copywriting phrases, to ensure that I was communicating in the best way possible. I opted for a light, warm, happy game at the opening; that soon has a dramatic turn.
I designed the beginning of the game to simulate the act of choosing your pet at a shelter: selecting the breed, the gender and to name (and bond with) your pet. This way you become attached to your pet, and you can not wait to bring them home and begin to love them as part of the family. Just as a mother would feel about her baby. However, while you’re in a happy state with bouncy, joyful tunes and playful, innocent colours such as pastel blue and pink, your pet has been ripped away and thrown into a fur farm. The purpose of the game is to help your pet to escape; which you soon find us impossible and once your pet has been caught, he/she is murdered brutally and finally placed on a hanger in stores. The levels throughout the game subconsciously tell you the journey of the slaughterhouse, the conditions of fur farms and also the circumstance in which each breed is slaughtered - just in the name of fashion.
I chose the typeface ‘daddy’s girl’ as it’s friendly, childlike and thus, innocent, reflecting the animals.
Fur is not a by product of meat etc. As we do not eat fox, mink etc. Thus they are bred, abused and murdered just for their skin. They are seen as a ‘business’ and not as individual lives with emotions and personalities. We too are animals: if murder among our own breed is wrong, so is murder across species.
Using Photoshop, I transformed my hand rendered illustrations into animated digital art, as each pet has their own personality and trait. For example, the dog raises his ears and tilts his head to you when you hover over him, making him more lovable and realistic, due to the personality. Furthermore, I based the domestic animals on my own pets; this way I hope to emphasise how we should view these animals as family members and individuals, not a fur coat.
Using Photoshop, I transformed my hand rendered illustrations into animated digital art, as each pet has their own personality and trait. For example, the dog raises his ears and tilts his head to you when you hover over him, making him more lovable and realistic, due to the personality. Furthermore, I based the domestic animals on my own pets; this way I hope to emphasise how we should view these animals as family members and individuals, not a fur coat.
I hope to change opinions with my game through education. I do not aim to preach or force spectators into my activist views: but to ask them to be aware of not what they are buying, but who they are buying and the process that animals go through for one unnecessary, luxury item. I aim to teach my spectators, and also provide them with a game that is fun and enjoyable (also frustrating and lacks hope as it’s impossible to win) in the hopes of it becoming viral throughout social media. Even if they play the game just for the game as opposed to the message I am content, as subconsciously they will be being educated. The power of hosting the game on a social platform such as Facebook, gives the project an opportunity to be accessed worldwide.
Link to game play: http://sophiasargeant.co.uk/secret-project-wip
Link to game play: http://sophiasargeant.co.uk/secret-project-wip
