Design an interactive datapad for a video game.

Project Title: Datapad: Video Game Asset

Video games have had a major impact on our world culturally, politically, and economically. Video games are used for entertainment, education, and training. Today, the multibillion dollar industry is more exciting than ever. New technologies have revolutionized the field of video game design with motion control, touch-screen devices, and interactive datapads.

Datapads are especially desirable because they are compact, mobile, and can store and transmit all types of information such as audio recordings, videos, maps with GPS capabilities, and mission commands. A datapad enables a gamer to carry out a mission from anywhere in the world—they can read the mission dossier, look at maps and waypoints, communicate with teammates, and interact with weapon systems or other game systems.

In a series of videos, 3D artist Jesse Moody guides you through the creative process of designing a datapad from researching ideas, to creating a prototype and testing it, to the finished design. The datapad should be geared towards a first-person game with the ability to be optimized into a third-person game. Much like in Gears of War, Batman: Arkham City or Arkham Asylum, Call of Duty, Splinter Cell, or Dead Space, your interactive datapad will be the main device that the player uses for gameplay.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to design an interactive datapad to be used for video games. Design your datapad with your favorite video game in mind or design one for an action-packed video game of your own creating. Whether you’re an experienced gamer or a noob, you can tap into your imagination and design the datapad of the future.