PROJECT OVERVIEW
For centuries Indian philosophy has guided human society through its wisdom about life values and even understanding of the cosmos!
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Despite the vast knowledge provided by Mahapuranas, people find them disconnected from daily life in today’s fast faced world. Today, where technological advancement is shaping the holistic development of a person, moral values play a crucial role.
This project marks the beginning of efforts to connect the ancient Mahapuranas with our modern, tech-driven world.
THE CHALLENGE?
The age of 20-40 years are the most productive years of one’s life where one undergoes significant social, mental, emotional and career related experiences. The stress of ambition, financial gain, and external demands and obligations has caused a disconnection from inner peace. The increasing gap from traditional value systems that formerly promoted emotional resilience and self-control is a significant contributing factor.
OBJECTIVE
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​Create a digital platform that will present the moral teachings and lessons from the Mahapuranas in a relatable and engaging format.
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Help the users introspect on themselves, grow emotionally, and increase decision-making
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In order to make it accessible and relevant, use simple language and engaging imagery.
TARGET AUDIENCE
Adults aged above 20+ age with more focus on the
individuals between 20-40 age group, that is, the young adults, who live in urban and semi-urban areas with exposure to digital mediums
KNOWING THE ANCIENT TEXTS
What are Vedas?
The 4 Vedas
THE VEDAS
Practical Applications
Relevance of Vedic teachings today
THE PURANAS
What are Puranas?
Relevance of Puranas today
INTERVIEW WITH EXPERTS
ANALYZING THE PURANIC STORIES
Breaking down the stories into the art of narrative structure
The stories from the Mahapuranas cover the areas like health, art, ethics, environment, science and many more. The morals from these stories are analysed to bridge the gap between karma and personality to face everyday challenges in the life. Extensive research and discussion with Vedic pandits gave the insight of stories in puranas. It was concluded that sample five stories are sufficient to extract morals narrated in the stories. The narrative structure of the five stories was analysed to understand the details described in the stories. This method helped in finding out how each story unfolds, the character arcs, challenges, tranformations allowing for the layered meanings told in each story.
The five Mahapuranic stories
Story of Keshidhvaja and Khandikya (Vishnu Purana)
Story of Ribhu and Nidagha (Vishnu Purana)
Story of Chitraketu (Bhagwata Purana)
Story of Jadabharata (Bhagwata Purana)
Story of Shumbh-Nishumbha and Goddess Durga (Markandeya Purana)
A Google form survey was conducted with a carefully designed questionnaire to help people aged 20+ introspect themselves. The questionnaire contains questions revolving around one's mental, and emotional well being, which would help the people gain deeper awareness about themselves.
INTERVIEWING USERS
COMMON PATTERNS
The empathy mapping gave way to common patterns observed throughout the survey among the four age groups based on the genders.
BRAINSTORMING
Brainstorming using 6 thinking hat method
Micro-brainstorming the possible design direction
Once game design was decided as my design direction, a more focused brainstorming was done wherein I explored multiple gameplay formats that could give me the most effective emotional and relevant impact that could resonate with my users.
Each of these options were explored by mapping out gameplays, sketches, flow of the game in order to see their engagement, scalability, feasibility
Micro-brainstorming through storyboarding
FINAL DIRECTION
It consists of 5 fictional characters (male and female), each linked to an elemental core, taken from Panchamahabhuta, with character traits related to the elements.
At the end of each stage, the player will get to see the consequences, the karma points and the elemental core shift faced by their character according to the choices they make.
To create a narrative based mobile game that summarizes and restructures difficult intellectual and moral lessons into compelling narratives.
The game is divided into 3 stages, with each comprising of dilemmas.
Each stages consists of 2 choices, one morally high and other potentially grey.
As the stage will progress, the dilemmas will get tougher and the moral line between the choices gets thinner.
The game will end with character reaching one of the five endings based on the total number of karma points.
The players will also be able to view a lesson from the Mahapuranas based on their character's journey
USER FLOW
WIREFRAMING
THE VISUALS
LOGO
ICONOGRAPHY
TYPOGRAPHY
COLOURS
Logo Explorations
"KarmaQuest" means a quest-driven route where one's development and results are influenced by their karma.
Final Logo
Amoria
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NamiW04
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Petita
#F17447
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CHARACTER DESIGN
THOUGHT CAPSULE
"KarmaQuest began with a quiet urge—to bring the timeless wisdom of ancient Indian texts into today’s world, to make them breathe. So I started reading, researching, collecting fragments of ideas. At one point, it felt like I was drowning in layers of meanings, philosophies, and metaphors. That was my first challenge: not the design, but the weight of the content. Then came the next question — how do I translate this for my generation? Not as lectures, not as textbook rewrites. And that’s when the idea of a game came in — not just as a medium, but as a mindset. Because life itself is a game of choices, karma, and emotional balance, isn’t it? KarmaQuest gave me space to blend mythology, morals, emotions, and interactivity. It made me realize that stories don’t lose relevance — we just need new ways to tell them."