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Gugugaga Penguin!
Lead & sole game designer
Level design · 3D modelling · UI design
A penguin wants to fly. Hold your hands over a Leap Motion sensor and flap them like wings to keep it in the air, steer through an icy obstacle course, and collect coins along the way.
I designed the gameplay for our human–computer interaction course project, taking Flappy Bird into 3D and giving each wing a hand of its own. I also led level design, modelled many of the large environmental objects, and designed and tuned the interface.
What is the Leap Motion Controller 2?
It is a small optical hand-tracking camera made by Ultraleap. Infrared cameras and tracking software follow the position and movement of your hands and fingers in 3D.
For a desktop setup, it connects by USB and sits in front of the computer with its shiny face up. You hold your hands above it, and the software turns what the cameras see into hand-tracking data.
In Gugugaga Penguin, that data becomes input for the two wings. The sensor gives us hand movement; deciding what that movement should mean in the game was the design problem.
Our answer was to let players lend the penguin their hands. Flap them like wings, watch the bird respond, and try to keep it flying.
Device background: Ultraleap's hand-tracking overview and desktop setup guide.
Why flapping hands?
The brief for ECE4300, Systems Design in Human-Computer Interaction, was to make something with the Leap Motion Controller 2 provided by the course. I wanted an interaction people could understand with very little explanation.
Birds' wings are their forelimbs. When people pretend to fly, they often spread their arms and flap them. That gave me the mapping: your hands become the penguin's wings, and the movement you make to imitate flight actually makes it fly.
Each hand controls the corresponding wing. Flapping both keeps the penguin aloft; changing the balance between them lets you steer. The premise gives players a reason to try the movement before anyone has finished explaining it.
Both hands flap
Gain lift
Uneven flapping
Adjust direction
Taking Flappy Bird into 3D
I started with the familiar rhythm of Flappy Bird: flap to stay airborne, then judge the next gap. A course with depth adds another decision. Players have to judge where to pass an obstacle as well as how high to fly.
The penguin moves forward automatically. Each flap adds upward and sideways force, so players learn to balance the two wings while the course keeps moving toward them. Coins give them a reason to adjust their path. Rocket pickups add a temporary burst of speed.
The run ends with the penguin flying into a target for bonus points. I liked giving all that frantic flapping a physical punchline: the bird becomes its own cannonball.
Building the flight path
I led the level design and testing, with a teammate helping construct and test the playable courses. Across five levels, the early sections give players room to get used to lift, balance, and steering. Later sections combine those demands, with the fifth level providing the hardest course.
Making the game three-dimensional meant building spaces the penguin could actually fly through. I worked on the route and the large forms around it, including much of the environment modelling. The ice walls and narrow passages give the player something concrete to read while deciding when and where to flap.
Feedback you can read while flapping
I designed and tuned the UI alongside the gameplay. The two hand indicators sit on either side of the penguin, matching the player's hands. Hearts show remaining health, the score records collected coins, and the bar on the left shows progress through the course.
Players are already coordinating their hands and watching the next obstacle. I wanted the interface to give them the information they needed without taking much attention away from the flight.
Teammates handled the Leap Motion integration and the surrounding game systems, as well as supporting course construction and testing. I led the UI redesign, working from the flight controls and the information a player needed during a run.
Ten seconds to understand the idea
At the course's final exhibition, other students and judges came over to play. What I remember most is how quickly people understood the controls. In my observation, most visitors grasped the basic interaction within about ten seconds.
Other booths often needed a longer explanation or someone guiding a new player through the controls. At ours, visitors could start moving their hands and watch the penguin respond. Once they understood that connection, the challenge was keeping it flying.
The footage below catches a player concentrating on the course, flapping over the sensor, and laughing during the run. That response was what I had hoped for when I chose this interaction.
For me, the project succeeded when a visitor could understand the idea quickly and enjoy trying it.
A bird that still wants to fly
McLaren is my favourite car brand, and its early kiwi emblem was an early point of inspiration. I was drawn to the idea of a flightless bird wanting to fly, and eventually chose a penguin for the game.
The character makes the premise a little ridiculous, which I like. It also carries something I care about: wanting to go beyond the limits you were born with. Here, a player lends the penguin their hands, flaps them, and gives it a chance to get airborne.