Start with the interface. Then choose a world.

Use Back and Next at the top of the screen, the dots below, or your arrow keys. We begin with the interface and type system every direction shares, then walk through the six visual worlds.

The interface, component by component

The interface is designed as part of the world, not laid on top of it. Below are working components (the decision prompt, the achievement chip, the progress rail and the evidence panel) shown over a finished scene.

Every control has five states

A student should never have to guess whether a control is available, already pressed, or waiting on them. Hover, focus, pressed and disabled are all designed, and every drag interaction has a select-and-move alternative for keyboard and touch.

Typography and colour

Three roles. A display face that carries personality and shouts when it needs to, a handwritten face for the student's inner voice and marginal notes, and a highly legible UI face for everything that must never be misread.

The mini-games

In Journey 3 the learner sits in a real committee hearing, keeps the statements that matter, and attaches them to a clause of the bill. The reasoning they write becomes visible in the bill's margin, and a representative challenges it on the floor later.

The mini-game set, planned

In Journey 5 the learner gathers evidence, groups it on a case board, and builds a live action plan. Eight substantive notes and two groups are required, and filler can't complete it. In Journey 4 the same workspace becomes five launch workstations with real dependencies.

The same decision in all six directions

This is the identical moment in the game (one amendment, three choices) dressed in each of the six directions. This is the clearest way to feel the difference, because the interface is where a student actually spends their time.

Dialogue and status, three ways

The dialogue box and the status bar carry most of the screen time, so their personality matters more than any single illustration. Painted for warmth, comic for energy, glass for a modern register.

The journey menu, three ways

The first screen a student ever sees. All three columns carry the same three journeys and the same player-name field, so the only thing that changes is the visual language. These are the same three directions used throughout the board: Painted Print, Clean Modern 3D and Capitol Zine.

The interface kit

These are the pieces a student sees constantly: the journey bar, the dialogue box, the notebook, the objective list and the reward confirmation. They are designed once and used everywhere, so the whole game feels like one product rather than thirteen separate activities.

The four full screens, three ways

Beyond the in-scene interface there are four full screens: the entry point, the journey map a student chooses from, the progress and record screen, and the loading state. Each is shown in all three shortlisted directions, left to right, so you can compare like for like. The content is identical in every column. Only the visual language changes.

The icon set

One icon family used across every journey, and a character expression range that lets dialogue be performed rather than described. Icons carry no text, so they have to read at a glance on a school Chromebook.

Device priorities

This is a classroom product, so the smallest screen is the one that matters most. Every layout works on a laptop or Chromebook, scales up to a classroom display, and adapts to tablets and phones without losing the work area.

The badge set

Badges are earned for genuine work: a connection made, a plan defended, a bill carried. They re-skin to whichever world we choose, and locked badges show what's still ahead so the path stays visible.

Sound effects

Short, restrained effects that confirm what actually changed: a document edited, a promise made, a point earned. They are never the only feedback: the visual receipt always lands too, and the whole game is completable in silence.

Pick the music direction

The music question on its own, separate from the visual direction. These are eight sample music directions in four families, two options each, so you can hear the range before choosing. Play them and tell us which one feels like the game you want to build. Every one of them sits under dialogue without fighting it.

Music beds, one per journey

If you'd rather the three journeys each had their own score than sit under one genre, this is that version: one warm main theme and a distinct underscore per journey, so the stories feel like three different rooms in the same building.

One world, drawn by one hand

The clearest improvement available to us is consistency. When characters and environments are created in the same visual language, students stop seeing a product and start believing a place. Each direction below commits fully, and each one commits differently.

Hand-Inked Painted Print

Painted brushwork with paper grain, soft ink contours rather than heavy outlines, halftone shading, and a warm terracotta, cream, navy and turquoise palette. Characters and environments drawn by the same hand.

Clean Modern 3D Render

Photoreal architectural rendering, warm sunlight, timber ceilings, sunlit civic space and a diverse contemporary cast. Aspirational and immediately legible to any audience.

Stylized 3D Character

Animation-grade 3D characters, appealing and clean in silhouette, set against cinematic rendered environments. The most future-proof of the six.

Capitol Zine

Screenprinted comic. Bold ink, ben-day halftone, a five-colour spot palette and deliberate misregistration. It looks like something students made themselves, which is entirely the point.

Graphic Novel

Painted prestige comic. Chiaroscuro lighting, a limited palette per scene (warm amber in the hearing room, cold blue at the vote) and visible brushwork throughout.

Modern Flat

Clean geometric vector. Flat fills, no gradients, high-contrast complements. The most animatable of the six and the easiest to keep perfectly consistent across every journey.

Motion and video tests

Six directed shots rather than generic loops. Each one is built with a specific camera move, lens and lighting intention: crane descents, portrait push-ins, over-the-shoulder testimony and a spotlighted tally board. Six seconds each, playing automatically so you can see the movement.

All six directions, side by side

A character and an environment rendered in each direction, so the difference is easy to judge at a glance.

Our recommendation

The decision sheet

No rush, and no wrong answers. This is just the list of decisions this board is asking you to make. You can pick a direction, a sound and a device priority independently of each other.

What we produce on approval