Objective
To celebrate Chinese New Year (8 Jan to 3 Feb), I led the design and development of PEDRO Snake, a retro-inspired Snake game. The goal was to create an engaging, nostalgic experience that aligned with PEDRO’s brand identity while driving user engagement during the festive period.
Design Process
Visual Direction & Mood Board
PEDRO has the signature minimalist brand identity which are widely recognised by young and trendy audience. We wanted the UI in contemporary interface with clean typography.
Snake & Food Design
Initially, we explored several snake designs, including more detailed and stylized options. However, after discussions with the client, we decided to go with a super minimalist black line for the snake. This choice aligned with PEDRO’s sleek and modern brand identity while keeping the game simple and visually clean.
I used Photoshop to create the sprite sheet, also known as a texture atlas. The sprite sheet below contains all the sprites we’ll be using, including various snake segments facing different directions and the apple sprite. Each image has a resolution of 64x64 pixels with a transparent background. When rendering them on the screen, we’ll scale them to match our game’s design.
For the food, I created the 3D logo of PEDRO and animated rotation.
UI Design Mockups
The game officially launched on January 8, 2025, and was featured on the PEDRO website. 400+ players participated, with the highest recorded score of 454 achieved by a player within an hour.
What I learned
I had the opportunity to collaborate closely with a developer to define the design requirements. Through this experience, I gained insights into the constraints and asset needs for simple game development.
Challenges
Executing a minimalist design across the entire UI was more challenging than expected, requiring careful refinement of every element to align with PEDRO’s brand identity. This project reinforced that minimalist design isn’t just about simplicity, it’s about precision, where every detail shapes the user experience.
