For this group project at Vega School of Design, students required to select a South African charitable cause to champion in a serious game project. I, along with my teammates, selected the plight of the Cape honeybee as our serious issue - and we designed Honeybee Haven as a solution to educate our audience about this crucial species.

We designed Honeybee Heroes as a whimsical, “cosy”-style fantasy game with farming simulator mechanics, settlement (beehive) management, and the in-game ability to operate a small farm stall apothecary business. The game is aimed at educating young adults about different endemic insect species in South Africa - specifically the Cape honeybee - and the indigenous plants that are essential to their ecosystems; through the use of engaging, but not overstimulating, gameplay. By incorporating the cultivation of indigenous South African plants and care for native insect life into the core gameplay loop, we successfully made a positive educational impact on our prototype’s playtesters.