Otter Duo!

A co-op educational game about giant otters, created for AquaZoo Leeuwarden.

About

OtterDuo is the game I created for my graduation project in collaboration with AquaZoo Leeuwarden. The game teaches young children about the real hunting behavior and environmental challenges faced by giant otters. It uses text-free gameplay, simple controls and a warm, friendly art style to make the experience accessible to children aged 4 to 8 and to visitors who cannot read.

I developed this project from start to finish. I created the art direction, gameplay systems, UI, environments, animations and all in-game assets. OtterDuo received a 10 out of 10 as a graduation grade and was featured in the Leeuwarder Courant.

What I Did

I handled the entire design and development of the game. This includes visual design, gameplay, world building, UI, animation, sound implementation and the full Unity production. I also communicated with the client to ensure everything matched real otter behavior and remained easy for children to understand.

Gameplay Video

Design Highlights

Character design: Designed the two otter characters and created the entire visual style for the game.

Co-op controls: Built intuitive shared-tablet controls where each player commands their own otter through taps or drag movement.

Emotion feedback: Added simple otter emotions that show happiness or frustration as clear feedback for young players.

Threat mechanics: Implemented the fishing boat threat that steals fish and temporarily disables an otter when touched.

Tail animation: Created a procedural tail animation that naturally follows the otter’s movement.

Accessible UI: Designed a text free UI with clean icons so the game is accessible for non-readers.

Play session design: Structured the game for short and simple play sessions that fit naturally into a zoo visit.

Voice acting: Performed and implemented all voice acting for in-game guidance and feedback.

What I Loved About This Project

This project gave me a chance to get more comfortable in Unity and build something from the ground up completely by myself. I also enjoyed learning more about giant otters. They are such interesting animals and they really need all the help they can get, so researching them and bringing that into the game felt important.

Testing the game with children was also a highlight. They picked up the controls immediately and had a lot of fun trying to catch more fish than the boat. Seeing how quickly they understood everything without text was really nice to watch.

Working with AquaZoo and having the project show up in the Leeuwarder Courant was a great bonus. It made the whole experience feel very special.

Tools Used

Unity (URP, animations, C#)
Blender (models, textures)
Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator (art assets)
Audacity, Shure MV7 (voice acting & audio cleanup)