HowlSpace: The Howling Hollow Messaging App

    Available for mobile devices, this app brings the in-universe messaging app HowlSpace to life, but as a quest-based game. In the game, guests fully step into the role of a tourist exploring Howling Hollow, following the canonical plot of the land, with their actions directly affecting the film Van Helbrick and the Monster Fighters. Throughout their visit, guests will communicate with characters, interact with their surroundings, and go on land-wide scavenger hunts. 

HowlSpace: The Howling Hollow Messaging App Logo Design. Ever since I first started working on this aspect of this project, I knew generally what I wanted this app logo to look like, but the journey to this final design was not an easy one. Initially, I just had an illustration of a wolf howling at the moon, but the layouts just weren't working. The "Ah-ha" moment for me when I was working on this was when I decided to make the moon into a speech bubble. In that way, it reads as the logo for a messaging app while still giving it that Howling Hollow twist.

    As the posts on this blog cover each location in the land, the quests that occur at that point in the story will also be presented, with this app forming the backbone of the remainder of the content. In the meantime, this post covers the beginning of the game, as well as establishes the presentation of the user experience interface.

HowlSpace Login Screen Design. And here's how that user experience first starts. While I knew that I wanted to keep the look of the app game simple to give off the appearance of being a social media platform, I really struggled with the colors. I wanted colors that evoked the feeling of Howling Hollow without clashing, and while I ran through multiple color variations, this is the final look that I settled on. It's simple, gives off of the feeling of Howling Hollow, and contains all of the needed information. Fun fact: the cell phone mock-up was actually generated with AI, since I knew that the focus is going to be on the app itself, which is entirely by me and will be used throughout this special project to cover the game's story. The AI ended up giving the hand an extra finger, which I then had to paint away. Go figure.

HowlSpace Quest 1: Welcome to Howling Hollow, Traveler!

HowlSpace Messages Screen. Also acting as the app's home screen, this is where all of the quests (recontextualized as message feeds) live. Only the first one is available right now, but as we progress, more will become available. But before we begin... 

HowlSpace Profile Screen. Time to set up our user profile! This is really the only screen in the app (and honestly the only place in the land) that sort-of breaks the story for the sake of guest convenience. Here, the guest's achievements, quests, progress, and more are stored here, alongside two more peculiar tabs: interests and friends. I would imagine this app as also having some actual functionality as a social media app that can also give the guest suggestions based on their interests that they input. From now on, we're going to use this fictitious guest as the player for the remainder of this special project. Welcome to Howling Hollow, Irene Fiala!

HowlSpace Quest 01 Introduction Screen. And now the story begins. Going forward, most of this project will be looking at this phone to follow the story of HowlSpace. However, I will be jumping in with commentary and concept art whenever I need to focus on a specific location or event.

The guest now travels to and enters Chamber of Commerce. The guest confirms this by pressing the button in the app.

Up Next: Chamber of Commerce