We are Animal Agency
Animal Agency is a team of four graphic design students: Mila, Esteban, Wout and Jens. Each of us brought our own strengths to the project and worked closely together to build this experience.
The final product: Spoorpoot
Spoorpoot: an app designed to bring the Zoo of Antwerp experience into the city, making exploring and discovering Antwerp fun and interactive for young families.
After picking a team name, players are called by Ward de Bever to solve the theft of a rare cocoon. The police have three suspects, but it’s up to the players to identify the correct culprit. To do this, they travel through the city of Antwerp to several well-known locations. At each spot, they meet a zookeeper or witness who shares a short story, giving a bit of history about the location, followed by a mini-game or puzzle. Completing the activity provides a clue to help identify the thief. Throughout the adventure, players can also catch escaped butterflies scattered across the map.
At the end, the real culprit, a pigeon, confesses and reveals where the cocoon is hidden. The cocoon hatches into a rare butterfly, and the zoo thanks the players on the end screen, showing their playtime and the number of butterflies they collected.
The Goal
We were given the assignment to create a location-based app connected to the city of Antwerp. We chose to build something for one of the biggest attractions in the city: the Zoo of Antwerp.
Our goal: to make the family subscription more attractive by extending the zoo experience beyond the zoo and out into the city.
The Target Audience
The app is designed for young families, especially children aged 6–12 who visit the zoo regularly and own an subscibtion. The idea is to make city exploration more playful, exciting, and less boring for them.
The Concept
Each month a new mystery appears. Together with “Ward de Bever” (a fun wink to the current mayor’s name) and the zookeeper, players become detectives and follow the animal’s paw-steps through the city to uncover clues.
At every location, they complete puzzles, riddles or short interactive tasks. Along the way, they can also collect escaped butterflies scattered across the map.
Illustrations & Characters
We kept the visual style fun, cartoony and colourful to appeal to children. We also created playful characters with pun-based names such as “Pablo Escorat” and “Al Pigeonie” to keep the experience lighthearted and entertaining.
Technical Aspect
This project was our first experience developing a game prototype. We strengthened our JavaScript and CSS skills, explored Mapbox for location-based functionality, and learned to collaborate effectively using GitHub.
