January 2025
Production Update 1/05/25
We have completed our Minimum Viable Product and are preparing some social media sharing features to be ready for Beta Testing. We’re making significant progress toward a 2025 launch on iOS and Android!
WELLNESS HERO continues to evolve as a video game for social impact, simulating depression, teaching coping skills, and spreading awareness. Since our last update, we’ve expanded the core gameplay with a new "Pathology Plugin" to simulate Depression and added an interactive call-to-action feature for instant mental health support. These additions deepen the game's purpose as a gamified psycho-education tool based on C.B.T., M.B.S.R., and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Notable updates include balancing gameplay, expanding the Journey Paths skill tree, and doubling the number of Daily Challenge events and Wellness Techniques. Feedback from several closed beta tests revealed the need for a clearer on-boarding experience, which we’ve addressed with a detailed step-by-step walk-through for new players.
We’ve also ported the game to Unity 6, enabling broader optimization, and began Beta Testing for Android in addition to iOS.
To prepare for launch, we’ve expanded the Ensemble Interactive website at www.EnsembleInteractive.com to include the beginnings of a press kit, anticipating a comprehensive marketing campaign later this year. Additionally, we’ve been actively Dev-logging on our Instagram and other socials at ensembleinteractive, where you can find concept art and detailed explanations of our process. As a professor, documenting this project’s process has been a priority to offer insights into its development.
Producer, Creative Director - David Negrin
Art Lead - Hannah Barone
Code Lead - Carson Moon
Design Lead - Donovan Mercado
Marketing Lead - Maxwell Neale
Check out our first trailer!
Wellness Hero Final, Trailer Short
NEW ON-BOARDING & TUTORIAL
EXPANDED WELLNESS TECHNIQUES
EXPANDED DAILY CHALLENGES
CALL TO ACTION FOR SUPPORT
Production Blog
Production Update 5/25/24: We’re in the last 4 weeks of production, and should be Beta Testing in April on target for a Summer 2025 Release on iOS and an Android - Negrin
Production Update 2/12/25: Completed our first pass to share & currently upgrading into a newer version of Unity, allowing more ways to review analytics and features we were without before. iOS release scheduled for later this year, android for the future! - Maxwell
WELLNESS HERO is a video game for social impact that simulates depression, teaches coping skills, de-stigmatizes mental health challenges, and spreads awareness. The casual emotional energy management game transforms the CBT & MBSR based “Spoon Theory” concept into a gamified psycho-education experience. A framework based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The final game will include in-game interactive calls to action for advocacy, donation, and crisis support through mental health non-profit partners. Designed for mobile iOS and Android platforms on the Unity game ending. (Previously ‘Waves’)
Art Style & Game Space
Prototypes & Game Balancing
One of our latest prototypes next to a concept of the field.
Once core gameplay was built in the Unity project, we could begin playtesting and iterating on balancing the fun, difficulty, and social impact goals of WELLNESS HERO
Producer, Creative Director - David Negrin
Art Lead - Hannah Barone
Code Lead - Carson Moon
Design Lead - Donovan Mercado
Marketing Lead - Maxwell Neale
Finding the art style and color palette is an ongoing process between our Art Lead and Creative Director. Our goals were a casual game interface, with metaphorical elements, where strategies will emerge intuitively while subtly achieving our psychoeducation impact goal.
Menu & UI Concepts
These menu and user interface concepts represent an intermediate version of a simplified game loop.
Badge Concepts & Sprites
Journey Interventions and Day Events are represented in game by badges that communicate the journey path or the life area of your daily tasks.
Hero Concepts & Models
We worked through multiple concepts for the ‘Hero’ figure from humanoid to completely abstract to somewhere in between. The variations below represent the increased awareness of the player as they level up in their wellness journey.
Hero Concepts & Models
Transitioning from the tabletop prototype to the video game project allowed us to scale down a complex ruleset and refine the game loop.
Production Update 5/25/24: We’re in the last 4 weeks of production, and should be Beta Testing in April on target for a Summer 2025 Release on iOS and an Android - Negrin
Design & Paper Prototype
Design of Wellness Hero began with a table top “paper prototype” to iterate on the core gameplay, the early rules set, and its social impact goals. It was created with pen and ink sketches, Table Top Simulator, and Photoshop.
© David Negrin 2025
Concept & Ideation
Concepting of Wellness Hero began with an iGDD, or interactive game design document, combining my ideation, references, social impact aspirations with game mechanics, game art, and game narrative.