Bunny Mood

Bunny Mood is a (mobile) game that offers an engaging and accessible approach to social-emotional education. My goal is to encourage greater participation among Chinese juveniles and improve their emotional literacy. In this game, players feed a bunny character that feeds on human emotions and receive emotion fragments – manga stories that depict a context-based emotion from the bunny. The mechanic nudges players to improve their emotional literacy through self-awareness and external information input. 

I designed the final version of the game to include both a mobile phone and iPad version with full features and a smartwatch version with minimalist functions. You can download and try out the preview version that I developed for a quick experience as well as check the detailed design on the project website.

My motivation for developing this game was inspired by my experience growing up in a Chinese family and educational environment that prioritized academic achievement over emotional development. Consequently, I initially lacked the necessary tools to navigate complex emotional situations, leading to significant emotional distress during a difficult period in my life. I rebuilt and fortified my emotional foundation through extensive self-Social Emotional Learning (SEL), equipping myself for future challenges. During my graduate studies, I observed that certain countries have a long history of treating SEL with great seriousness. In contrast, China has historically overshadowed SEL with academic education.