Joule
Joule is a story driven open-world adventure game in which players control a little robot through a post-apocalyptic world. In the remnants of an advanced retro futuristic society, you have to find a way through the wasteland, investigate the reasons for the downfall of society and uncover the secrets of a monumental power plant.
As a robot, the little Joule 254 has the ability to lend its energy to all robots and electrical appliances in the world. Awakening them lets the player talk to these NPCs and find out more about the lore of the world and how to accomplish the mission.
Year: 2024
Collaborators: Andrin Hess, Alberto Mancini (Music), Joel Gilardini (Sound)
Programs Used: Unity, Blender, Photoshop, Illustrator, HiPaint, Premiere Pro, After Effects
Joule was part of the Game Design exhibition 2024 at the ZHdK and of the Fantoche Festival 2024 in Baden.
The Project is also part of the "Growing Sustainability in the Arts" platform of the ZHdK. © Andrin Hess
Screenshots
Early Trailer

Exhibitions
Game lore learning
An early iteration of Joule was already part of my bachelor's thesis in 2022. Back then, I created a small tower defense game to find a way to use the intrinsic motivation of video games for learning purposes. During my Masters in Game Design, I decided to continue working on the premise of learning through video games. The focus of my master's thesis shifted to the use of lore in commercial entertainment video games for the purpose of knowledge transfer.
Joule represents an 'edufied' game. The aim of the masters thesis Game Lore Learning is to place educational elements homogenously in a non-educational context. Joule therefore visualizes the fundamentals of energy in a post-apocalyptic world in which energy itself is of central importance. An exploration of the topic is therefore motivated within the story. Players should not only intuitively learn simple facts, but the entertaining context of the game should also motivate them to engage with the topic outside of the game.