Little Sprout

Little Sprout: Our Journey

Little Sprout is a puzzle platformer game we created for 10–12-year-old players, set in a forest environment with a strong focus on accessibility. Designed for the Xbox Adaptive Controller, the game uses only two large buttons, making it simple and inclusive. This project was completed by 14 people over three weeks as part of a game development sprint at FutureGames.

Our inspiration came from the feeling of being lost in the woods and the adventure of climbing trees. During the first three days, we had inspirational lectures about accessibility and designing for kids, and we also learned Perforce for version control. Everyone shared their ideas on Miro, commented on each other’s concepts, and eventually narrowed them down to three options. The team voted, and we chose this idea because it allowed for a manageable workload across all disciplines.

Since the controller only had two buttons, we designed the character to walk automatically and change direction when hitting walls. The camera rotates as the player turns corners, revealing the next part of the tree and making it clear where the puzzle ends. To keep things simple, we avoided clutter, made interactable objects stand out, and ensured movement didn’t require precision.

By the second week, we had the movement, multiple levels, animations, and some assets ready for testing. We were lucky to see kids play the game in a museum (Tekniska museet) and used their feedback to make the levels easier to navigate. In the third week, we polished the game by adding intro and outro animations, more art assets, an improved menu, and music made by one of our artists.

What We Learned 

This project was both fun and challenging. We learned about team dynamics and how every decision impacts the work of others. Documentation is key—without a clear, shared document for decisions and requirements, we ended up wasting a lot of time. Perforce was new to us, and we quickly realized the importance of setting rules for how to use it effectively. Another big lesson was managing the time for each discipline. When designers were still finalizing the game concept, others sometimes felt stuck waiting. Having some early decisions (like movement mechanics or art style) could have helped everyone start sooner.

Overall, this project taught us the value of collaboration, planning, and designing for accessibility. It was a rewarding experience to create something simple, fun, and inclusive for young players.

Team Members:

Game designers:

• Daniel Atterby (design representative)
• Pontus Björkander
• Yanlin Liu
• Ghazaleh Shahabirad (product owner)

Game programmers:

• Jesper Elmtoft (programming representative)
• Kiran George Gaurdian
• Jamie Kofler
• Marcus Persson

Game artists:

• Ramesh Pitumpe (art representative)
• Julia Rosén
• Xiyuan Wang

Animators & VFX artists:

• Sushil Jangra (animation representative)
• Madeleine Olausson
• Yuan Zeng-Sandström