Fairy Garden

CONCEPT

To design, create and submit a new interactive experience in the form of a 3D environment/game that showcases my ability to apply creative capabilities and skills with design/interaction principals.

The Fairy Garden is a calm, small scale exploration game built in Unity Engine. Guide a tiny fairy around a circular garden. Not to pick flowers but to decorate the world as large flowers trail you wherever you go.

IDEATION

On review of other simple games, I found myself drawn meditative, aesthetic games such as Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing. I knew in the time frame that I had I would not be able to acheive the same level of complexity as those games. That’s why I thought having a simple garden where I could focus mainly on the atmosphere and aesthetics of the game rather than complex mechanics would be a better use of my time for this particular task.

I was particularly influenced by two books I have at home about flower craft projects. Their colourful, warm vintage vibes was something I wanted to capture. For the main character, I was inspired by May Gibb illustrations and classic Kewpie dolls.

The above show images from the games Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley. The design reference for the fairy character. Finally images from the flower craft books I have in my collection.

WORKFLOW

Terrain Development.

Lo-fi, polygon modelling has been popular amongst these kinds of games for a while. I wanted to acheive a unique look that was also not expensive to run so it would work as a mobile app. To do this, I created watercolour paintings of the terrain elements which were then scanned and used to create a base map. A black and white image of the painting was then used to create a normal map. These maps were then applied to an inexpensive quad shape and layered thickly across the terrain. This resulted in a lo-fi, low poly environment that was still unique from similar games and pretty to look at.

Wayfinding.

A ring path around a central pond. The player spawns on the high point to be able to read the map at a glance. Brick-like paths hint direction while tree “biomes” shift species and density. Grass grows lusher as you move toward water.

Mobile Controls.

For the controls, I splashed out and purchased a very highly rated mobile controller system from the asset store. Worth it due to how well it controlled the system and how easily adaptable it is.

Sound.

A looping ambient theme plus wind-chime cues that scale with the number of flowers nearby. More blossoms, more bells.

Lighting.

So the lighting would not remain static during the game, I incorporated a day/night cycle into the system. I followed a tutorial by Ketra Games. I then received valuable feedback about incorporating a spotlight to follow the character around so it would not get totally lost in the night cycle. I added the spotlight as part of the camera mount with a slight pink tinge.

The Flower.

The flower system emerged through experimentation and some accidental successes. Originally, the fairy was meant to pick randomly generated flowers, and I tried using phone photogrammetry to capture detailed models. However, the results were either too complex, too flat, or included unwanted backgrounds. Shifting approach, I followed a Blender tutorial and used geometry nodes to create a generative flower with “magical” particles. When imported into Unity and tested with my object spawner, the untextured white flowers stood out beautifully against the brightly coloured terrain. This happy accident shifted the narrative from picking flowers to the more sustainable act of decorating the garden. I also animated particle effects and added reflectivity, ensuring the flowers glowed subtly in cloudy weather and during the night cycle.

These images show the photogrammetry attempts that were made that ultimately did not work. Next is the geometry node set up for the flowers.

The Fairy

The fairy avatar was one of my first real dives into 3D modeling and texturing, so of course she came with plenty of surprises. My first sculpt was far too complicated (and, honestly, a little tragic), so I scrapped it and started fresh with a simpler tutorial-based design, adding a skirt and flower hat inspired by my references. When I textured her in Substance Painter, I skipped the key step of baking, which meant that once she landed in Unity, she looked a little more demonic child than woodland sprite. While not the look I was going for, it was a fun, and very necessary, learning curve, and now that I know the process better I’m excited to revisit her materials and finally give her the charm she deserves.

These images show the original fairy sculpt, then the second sculpt with the much simpler design. The next images show the model textured within substance painter. Finally in the bottom left is how the fairy appears in Unity currently.

Animal crossing image sourced from Gray, Laura. Animal Crossing: Every Flower Type & How To Get Them. Screen Rant. April 27, 2021. https://screenrant.com/animal-crossing-every-flower-type-guide/

Stardew Valley image sourced from Peacock, Nathanael. How Stardew Valley Inspired Me to Start My Own Garden. IGN. October 8, 2018. https://www.ign.com/articles/2018/10/08/how-stardew-valley-inspired-me-to-start-my-own-garden

"Fleur" Flower Kewpie image sourced from Wright, R John. "Fleur" Flower Kewpie. R. John Wright. https://www.rjohnwright.com/products/fleur-kewpie-chronology

Gum Blossom Babies created by May Gibbs. Image sourced from he Northcott Society and Cerebral Palsy Alliance. Stories and Characters. May Gibbs. 2024. https://maygibbs.org/stories-and-characters/

Flower images sourced from Raworth, J. and Berry, S. 1995. Flower Craft.. Collins & Brown. also Walden, H. Flower Works. Photographs by Forrester, P. 1987. Winward.

Suriyun. Mobile Controller System. Unity Asset Store. July 25, 2025. https://shorturl.at/zSxsw

Ketra Games. Creating a Day/Night Cycle (Unity Tutorial). YouTube. October 21, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4t2c1_Szdk

Chong 3d. Blender3D 3.0 - Procedural Flower modeling in Blender 3D using Geometry Nodes Fields (PART1). YouTube. December 5, 2021. https://youtu.be/Qj3M58GFXrw?si=oOJe2Opsu2JHskjS

SkyeDragon. Infinite Spawn Asset. Unity Asset Store. April 12, 2017. https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/infinite-spawn-66427

ARTV_Tutorials. Maya: Simple Character Part 01 - Modeling. YouTube. October 10, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzmg0grXHyE&t=2017s

ARTV_Tutorials. Maya: Simple Character Part 02 - UV Unwrapping Model. YouTube. October 10, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6C8XJHPN8k

Chill Biiona 3D Art. [Sub] Flared Skirt, low-poly, tip, 3D Maya. YouTube. https://youtu.be/GX3SlF0nt88?si=xCJ5LdP-xwkej93_

Muddy Wolf. Simple Water & Lava Shader in Unity with Shader Graph. YouTube. April 18, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crhoXJXxxJc