HUI
Historical Undying Impressions
A 2D ancient Chinese painting game.
July 2018 - August 2018
introduction
Nowadays, consumerism engulfs people's spiritual lives, and the essence of more and more traditional culture is trapped in books, documentaries, and museums. So our team took Chinese painting as an entry point. Young people in our new era do have a passion for art and want to explore it, but they have few opportunities and limited awareness that keep them from truly contacting and understanding this cultural treasure.
"HUI" is a 2D mobile game integrating ancient Chinese paintings into gameplay. Immersed in the various beautiful pictures, you, the player, will appreciate exquisite Chinese paintings, realizing the historical importance of a famous painting after the passing of the years, and how valuable it is to inherit cultural traditions. You'll follow the instructions and do the “painting” by yourself in 4 distinct steps. In that way, you’ll gain a preliminary understanding of the techniques used in Chinese painting.
our Group
HUI is a project that our team created during the 2018 summer session in the Idea-X program. This 4-week program is offered by CDM (Center for Digital Media) in Vancouver, Canada.
Here is our team:
Visual Design & UI Design: Li Xinchun & Wang Yaxuan
Interaction Design & Programming: Wang Xiaoying & Zhou Fanqi
Product Manager: Wang Xiaoying
Sounds and Video: Liang Xiaoyue
We hope to carry forward our precious culture and encourage more young people and foreigners to get close to Chinese culture and Chinese painting in a relaxed way.
background
A little girl (player view) who is from a historic Chinese family which had many famous painters.
Once she came across a butterfly. That magic creature guided her into the world of paintings.
In different paintings, the girl will experience the steps of how to create a fascinating Chinese styled painting.
The first Challenge she met is to finish the most well-known landscape painting: A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains
character
· from a historic Chinese family
· studying Chinese painting
· strayed into the world of paintings
· trying to finish the paintings
A little girl
scene
In Progress
STEP0:
Background
STEP1:
Lines
STEP2:
Bottom Color
Brown
STEP3:
Basic Color
Green
STEP4:
Highlighting
Blue
STEP5:
Details - Tree
Finished Status
Props
Flower Ball
Use as a missile, trying to hit the painting tools you need, steering around the blocked stones.
The flower ball also means “life.” For each level, you have 3 balls to finish the collecting challenge.
Basic Prop
Stones
Serve as obstacles; the stones’ role is to add difficulties to the player who has to try to steer around them.
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Chinese Ink — Dots
Players should use flower balls to hit inks filled with different utensils. Just try to collect them with as few flower balls as possible.
After collecting all three inks, if you select the inks on the props board, dots will appear on the canvas. Use your finger to connect all the dots to “draw” the lines and colors. (Take black ink as an example, the others will have reasonable orders to choose and color.)
Brown Ink
Due to the order of Chinese painting, you should use brown ink first as well as “paint” first.
Green Ink
The color green should be the second layer—it decides the basic style of art work.
Blue Ink
As a highlight As a highlighting color, blue is also the last step of coloring.
Detailed Vitality
These props aim to give the painting a lively atmosphere. Follow the same actions and add details like characters, animals and plants, to finish this step.
Level 4
Inscription & Seal
Last but not least, painters will write their inscription and impress the seal. Player can easily
put these props anywhere on
the painting.
layouts
Level1/2/3-1
① life bar: every level has 3 flower balls.
② Main character: moving by a boat, getting ready to throw the flower ball.
③ Uncollected inks: give out light.
④ Props board: when the flower ball hits the inks, the relative one will turn brighter.
⑤ UI button: back to the main menu/ restart.
Level1/2/3-2
① The dots: if your finger swipes in a correct order, they will become bigger.
② The used pigment: small size and with glimmer.
③ The unused pigment: big and without glimmer.
④ The in-use pigment: small and with highlight.
Level4
① The background: Chinese scroll.
② The stamp: you can put it anywhere you want.
③ Props board: drag them to put on the painting.
④ Submit button: it can be automatically saved in your album.
gameplay
level1-3
level4
Collecting step
The player just needs to use their fingers to drag the ball to the aimed position, which is a common way to “collect” in many games. They can drag or tap anytime while the flower ball is flying to change its route.
Painting step
First, the player needs to choose which line/color/detail they want to paint (some step there will be to draw in order).
Then, when the props in the right board are chosen, the relevant dots will appear and the player should slide all the dots, from left to right, to “draw.”
The player can put the seal and the inscription on the completed painting by dragging them onto the background.
After that, just tap the cloud to save “your” painting and to finish that level.
As a beginning level, it is easier to get the player into the game if they start with some familiarity of game methods.
In this step, we also offer a chance to “restart” so that the player will not stress much about how to pass a level and help relax them.
In this step, the player follows the original order of Chinese painting and experiences those steps, discovering the charm of Chinese painting.
We use dots to instruct the direction and order for the painting. Connecting the dots into a line makes players feel they are doing the action of “drawing a line.”
The specific order of coloring will also be emphasized when you learn Chinese painting.
The inscription and the seal are an important part of Chinese painting. As with the traditional painting process, we also use those two steps as the completion of a painting.
There is also a “stamp” animation to emphasize that the player is finishing by stamping.