A trash sorting game that promotes sustainability over a use and throw mentality.
Raccoon Rescuers is a 2-4 player game where players help a family of raccoons clean up a campsite and in the process learn about not just correctly sorting your waste but also coming up with ways to reuse or repurpose items that would otherwise be thrown away.
Project Details
Duration: 2 months (October 2023 - November 2023)
Team:
Hanbyul Lee ‘25 (Industrial Designer)
Sanghyuk Seo ‘25 (Industrial Designer)
Sunny Satpathy ‘24 (Visual Development)
My Role
Research
Game Concept Development
2D Illustrations (Characters, Board, Tokens)
Packaging Design (Illustrations)
Tools
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
UV Printing
Laser Cutting
3D Printing
Arduino
Let’s be real…trash sorting is both complex and mundane and many have tried to gamify this experience.
Each U.S. state has unique waste management protocols, for example pizza boxes are marked recylable in Rhode Island but in California depending on the county, they are considered compost. Complicated right?
Our market research into existing trash sorting games found that most trash sorting games focus on speed and didn’t have a check for accurately sorting the waste.
Raccoon Rescuers combines tech, storytelling and game mechanics to emphasise correctly sorting and repurposing items.
Making the very mistake I was trying to avoid: oversimplifying
When testing out potential game mechanics, we found that having instant feedback on right or wrong sorting eliminated ambiguity and resulted in a sense of accomplishment. We decided to have double sided coins that were colour coded. Blue coins were recyclable, black coins were trash and green ones were compost. Additionally, one side of the coin would have the trash item and the other would have it marked as either Trash, Recycle or Compost.
This ended up making things too basic and created a predictable game.
Initial colour coded design of the trash tokens
We went back to brainstorming ways to maintain complexity while giving players a clear indication of right and wrong. We started thinking of how we could use light or sound to add a sense of excitement to the gamplay. This is how we settled on having the trashcan light up.
Taking advantage of RFID technology
Raccoon Rescuers features 64 uniquely illustrated trash icons. Shown here are 32 tokens that were designed for the live demo
We created a list of items focusing on ones that have different materials and non-conventional disposal practices. I worked on the illustration for the tokens while Sanghyeok worked on the integrating the RFID scanners into the trash can designs.
Everybody wants to be a hero…not necessarily a student
A game thrives on its immersive experience. Educational games often struggle to balance entertainment and information. Our goal was to make players feel like heroes, so creating a compelling world and characters was crucial.
Knowing that animals appeal to our target age range (8+ years), I sketched a raccoon family arriving at a trash-covered campsite. We wanted this story to be central, making the game feel mission-driven rather than prescriptive. This introduction helps players learn about the characters, board setup, and the game mechanics.
Initial sketches of the raccoon family, early prototypes and the storyboard
Using the story to not only set-up the game but also break down the takeways for the game
Transforming the board to show the individual impact at a meaningful scale
Games and gameplay mechanics for an educator allow a level of expectation warping that can be used to drive home key messages in an impactful manner. We used the motif of trees and the idea of transforming the landscape of the board from a barren trash filled campsite to a lush forest to show the power of action. Each time a player correctly sorted a trash item they were awarded a tree to place in that spot.
Laser cutting the trees that transform the boardgame
“Save” mechanic to save the game from becoming like the ones in the market
The goal of Raccoon Rescuers was to help inform players of waste disposal methods but also make them think of ways to reduce the amount of waste generated. We included an additional gameplay mechanic where players could save trash tokens by proposing alternative uses that would keep the item out of the trash. These saved tokens awarded extra points at the end and allowed us to keep our message of saving over tossing at the forefront!
Sustainability isn’t just a theme for us. Raccoon Rescuers walks the talk, right down to its material choices
Making a game about trash only means so much if we generate more trash while manufacuturing. With this thought mind, when it came to making material choices for the final output we thought out the impact we would make in the processing. We conducted a quick OKALA, Life Cycle Assessement (LCA) of the materials we used and plan to use in the final product.
Ready, set and let’s play Raccoon Rescuers!
Projects like Raccoon Rescue are only as successful as the follow through actions they inspire. We included ID badges as a reward for finishing the game and in it included resources urging players to look up local waste management policies.
What was made evident through the testing was that the Save mechanic is still pretty clunky and could be reworked better into the story and this is how you make…